Millenium Report - Desertification

Exerpt from the Millenium report on Desertification:

"Desertification is a result of a long-term failure to balance
demand for and supply of ecosystem services in drylands. The
pressure is increasing on dryland ecosystems for providing ser-
vices such as food, forage, fuel, building materials, and water for
humans and livestock, for irrigation, and for sanitation. This
increase is attributed to a combination of human factors and cli-
matic factors. The former includes indirect factors like popula-
tion pressure, socioeconomic and policy factors, and
globalization phenomena like distortions to international food
markets and direct factors like land use patterns and practices
and climate-related processes. The climatic factors of concern
include droughts and projected reduction in freshwater availabil-
ity due to global warming. While the global and regional inter-
play of these factors is complex, it is possible to understand it at
the local scale.

Some 10–20% of drylands are already degraded (medium cer-
tainty). Based on these rough estimates, about 1–6% of the dry-
land people live in desertified areas, while a much larger number
is under threat from further desertification. Scenarios of future
development show that, if unchecked, desertification and degra-
dation of ecosystem services in drylands will threaten future
improvements in human well-being and possibly reverse gains in
some regions. Therefore, desertification ranks among the greatest
environmental challenges today and is a major impediment to
meeting basic human needs in drylands. "