DESERTIFICATION
What is it?
Definition:
Our definition: desertification is the process from which a certain fertile area becomes a desert, and it may happen naturally or artificially, by man’s predatory action.
Agenda 21: “the degradation of the soil in arid, semi arid and sub humid arid regions, resultant of a lot of factors, among them the climatic variation and human activities” (chapter XII).
Nowadays, desertification reaches 60 hundred Km2 all around the world, being equal to a prejudice of US$ 10 million.Principal causes of desertification:
- indiscriminate deforestation;
- use of wrong agro-cattle-raising technologies;
- uncontrolled exploration of areas which environmental balance is fragile;
- burns;
- mining activities;
- excessive use of agrotoxics;
- pollution;
- wrong use of the soil;
- dries;Environmental consequences of desertification:
- reduction of cultivable areas;
- diminution of the productivity in affected areas;
- reduction in hydrical resources;
- increasing of hydrical and atmospheric pollution;
- increasing of floods;
- increasing of sand in productive areas;
- destruction of flora and fauna.Social and economical consequences:
Desertification not only causes the environmental impacts that were already mentioned, but also social and economical as:
- uncontrolled migration for urban areas, causing the “swelling” of big metropolis;
- disintegration of the families units, resultant from the migrations;
- increasing of poverty because of the soil’s degradation and lose;
- increasing of pathological consequences because of the lack of water;
- lose of the agricultural potential of the reached area;
- lose of life’s quality in both areas: the reached area and the outskirts one;
- economic loses.
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