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 Printable version |
The future of deserts in the context of increasing desertification |
Science et changements planétaires / Sécheresse. Volume 18, Number 4, 349-53, 2007-10-01, Sécheresse en ligne, 4E
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 Résumé
Article gratuit
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Author(s) : Pierre Rognon |
Summary : The word desertification has been used so extensively and with such contradictory meanings that one should now revert to its initial definition of the late sixties and examine how the concept has evolved over the last five decades, as highlighted by the international Rio (1992) and Johannesburg (2002) conferences. Although desertification was acknowledged in 1992 as one of three priorities for the preservation of the world environment, the risks entailed are in practice restricted to warm or temperate deserts and to their borders. The progress of desertification varies considerably from region to region, depending on climatic factors (especially drought intensity), population growth or resource exploitation practices: deforestation, overgrazing and clearing of very fragile soils in poor countries, excessive mechanization and marketing in rich countries. Although present assessments are very pessimistic, prospects opened up by scientific research make it possible to propose more effective techniques to fight desertification and discover new water or food resources while combatting sand invasion and/or soil salinization. Furthermore, as part of the great geopolitical entities in gestation, desert regions will contribute to the development, for example, of solar and wind energy or leisure and holiday activities. The diversity of available techniques should enable authorities to rethink and solve issues of desert management, lessen or suppress risks of desertification and thus promote the emergence of new forms of civilization in some of these deserts. In practice however, many disparities will remain between deserts, depending on the capacity of States to effectively implement these new modes of development of arid regions. |
Keywords : demography, desert, desertification, desertification control, energy, food resources, water resources |
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