Sciences au Sud n°36 - September October 2006
October 2006
A disaster for the Earth
Desertification control, which is one of the themes of research of the IRD and Cirad since their inception, cannot therefore be separated from the question of sustainable development of arid and semi-arid zones. The economies of the countries threatened are based on their renewable natural resources and their GDP and are highly sensitive to the prolonged episodes of drought and to the degradation of these resources. All scenarios anticipate an aggravation of this process in the next few decades, owing both to climate changes and inappropriate practices of stock-rearing and crop growing, the instability of farming prices or insecurity. If nothing changes, in 25 years’ time, more than 2 billion people will be affected, 700 million of whom will be in Africa.
