trade, desertification and
livelihoods
george awudi bright, friends of the
earth ghana
Desertification has long been recognized
as a major environmental problem, with
adverse impacts on the livelihoods of
people in affected areas around the world.
Desertification currently affects one-sixth
of the world's population and 70% of all
dry lands, amounting to 3.6 billion
hectares and one-quarter of the world's
total land area.
In Africa , the impact of
desertification is particularly acute. It
threatens the lives of countless millions
and seriously affects more than 39% of the
continent, dangerously undermining the
ability of countries to feed their people
in the future. Furthermore, an increasing
focus on exports to northern markets,
combined with potential conflicts between
trade rules and the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification, means that further trade
liberalization could worsen rather than
improve this situation.
causes of desertification
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Desertification is a phenomenon that
starts with loss of vegetation and
leads to decreased soil fertility and
ultimately barren land and desert.
Natural factors such as drought,
coupled with unsustainable human
activities including forest removal,
the indiscriminate burning of bush and
forests, unsustainable farming
practices and overgrazing, are all
major causes of desertification.
Impacts are severe and wide-ranging,
and include soil erosion, declining
soil fertility, the evaporation of
water bodies, drinking water shortages,
salinization, decreasing crop yields,
food insecurity, hunger and starvation,
disease, conflict over water and land
resources, extreme poverty, migration
and loss of biodiversity.
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Technically, it is easy for the
desertification process to be triggered in
new areas if unsuitable policies encourage
unsustainable land-based activities, as can
happen when land is turned over to
extensive export-led agricultural
production. Ghana and Haiti are cases in
point here, as shown by the case studies on
the following pages.
combating desertification
Concern about the scourge of
desertification, particularly in Africa ,
led the United Nations to elaborate the
Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD) in 1996. One of the cardinal aims
of the UNCCD is to minimize the degradation
of land and halt the extension of deserts.
It promotes the adoption of “longterm
integrated strategies that focus … on
improved productivity of land, and the
rehabilitation, conservation and
sustainable management of land and water
resources, leading to improved living
conditions, in particular at the community
level.”
The adoption of export-led agriculture,
as promoted through the WTO and other trade
agreements, seems to be having exactly the
opposite impacts in countries affected by
desertification. Furthermore, one of the
major principles of the UNCCD is that
decision-making should be undertaken in
collaboration with local communities. This
is again at odds with the WTO, which
through its services liberalization
negotiations prioritizes the opening up of
‘nature and landscape protection' services.
This could have significant impacts on the
rights and abilities of local and
indigenous peoples to access and manage the
natural resources found within protected
areas for their own livelihoods and
traditional uses.
