8 November 2007Africa News
Desertification is a very severe form of land degradation, involving the steady but gradual loss of agricultural productivity and distinct decline of ecological health. It is marked by blighted lunar landscapes, encroachment of cultivable land by sand dunes, denuded rangelands and parched aquifers.The phenomenon matters for Africa’s environmental future, more so for the brake it puts on economic activities directly tied to healthy ecosystems.Take the case of farming. Desertification, drought and lately, climate change are all adversely impacting farming, threatening the principal source of livelihood – and exports – for millions of poor people.Arid, semi-arid and dry lands are particularly prone to the ravages of desertification. Globally, dry lands are estimated to cover more than 40 percent of the Earth’s surface and are home to nearly two billion people – one-third of the world’s population.The causes of land degradation are many, including population pressure on fragile lands, overgrazing, poor land management practices and drought.According to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), over the last four decades the African continent has suffered seven major episodes of drought. In two key regions – the Sahel and the Horn of Africa – the droughts of 1972-74 and 1981-84 caused massive social disruption and human suffering.Because desertification degrades whole ecosystems, it deprives poor people of the environmental services on which they most depend. For example, degraded lands can no longer produce crops, provide forage for livestock, or provide wood for fuel. Already, farm yields across Africa are one-third less than those achieved by Asian farmers. The result is that Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where food production is stagnating, and hunger is on the rise.Speaking to the challenges posed by a changing climate, Sir Nicholas Stern’s 2007 review “The Economics of Climate Change,” warned that declining crop yields, especially in Africa, could leave hundreds of millions without the ability to produce or purchase sufficient food. The study further warned that ecosystems will be particularly vulnerable to climate change, with around 15 to 40 percent of species potentially facing extinction after only 2°C of warming.Maintaining soil fertility and protecting the environmental resource base is critical for the largely agrarian economies of 47 countries south of the Sahara desert where the farm economy frequently accounts for anywhere between 25 to 50 percent of gross domestic product.“Desertification and land degradation are serious environmental issues,” said Marjory-Anne Bromhead, Sector Manager of the World Bank’s Africa Region environment and natural resources unit. “Sub-Saharan Africa is bearing the brunt of both, and concerted action is urgently needed to reduce the risks posed to poor people.”The TerrAfrica InitiativeTo tackle the problem of land degradation more forcefully in Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2005 the World Bank and its partners, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), launched the TerrAfrica initiative tasked with promoting sustainable land management practices by mobilizing coalitions, knowledge, and scale up financing.Examples from three countries demonstrate progress being made with support from TerrAfrica, and the potential for launching sustainable land management activities on a wider scale.•Ethiopia, a country endowed with enormous natural resources, has identified land degradation as a priority in virtually all national strategies. Working with the TerrAfrica partnership, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is developing a sustainable land management (SLM) investment framework that will align, coordinate, and scale-up SLM investments for the ultimate benefit of rural populations who depend on land for food, income, and environmental services.•Ghana has recognized land degradation as a critical, multi-sector issue requiring cooperation across different sectors such as agriculture, environment, forestry, mines and water resources. Consistent with a new architecture of development assistance in Ghana, the Government in the context of TerrAfrica is promoting SLM scale-up through a programmatic mobilization of operations centered on natural resource management and environmental governance as well as agricultural development.•Mali is committed to fight desertification on a war footing and has established an SLM Task Force to guide SLM scale up on a programmatic basis. This involves an action plan that beside increasing investments on the ground, also includes analytical work to review public expenditures on SLM, to thoroughly assess negative economic impacts of land degradation, and to undertake an institutional analysis to help guide the inter-ministerial coordination process.“The stakes are exceedingly high,” says Christophe Crepin, a lead environmental specialist in the World Bank’s Africa Region which hosts the TerrAfrica Secretariat. “By working directly with African governments, the TerrAfrica partnership is strengthening our collective ability to deal with problems of desertification and land degradation thereby helping secure Africa’s environmental future.”Fostering international actionIn September 2007, 191 countries met in Madrid under the auspices of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (www.unccd.int), to chart a forward-looking ten-year action plan to meet the multifaceted threats posed by desertification.The World Bank has for long been involved in helping countries fight desertification. Between fiscal years 2001 and 2006, the Bank committed US $1.4 billion for projects in natural resources management, with US $701 million specifically aimed at sustainable land management. Africa is the World Bank’s number one development priority.More recently, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through its Strategic Investment Program (SIP) has invested over $200 million for SLM projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, with every GEF dollar bringing an additional $4 in co-financing.
