Desertification in the Sahel

• Desertification

  The term used to describe the changing of semi arid (dry) areas into desert
• Desertification is severe in Sudan, Chad, Senegal and Burkina Faso
• Causes of desertification

  • Overcultivation
  • Overgrazing
  • Deforestation
  • Climate change
• Overcultivation

  The land is continually used for crops and does not have time to recover, eventually all the nutrients are depleted (taken out) and the ground eventually turns to dust
• Overgrazing

  In some areas animals have eaten all the vegetation leaving bare soil
• Deforestation

  Cutting down trees leaves soil open to erosion by wind and rain
• Climate change

  Decrease in rainfall and rise in temperatures causes vegetation to die
• Bunding

  1. Building lines of stones across a slope to stop water and soil running away

  2. Preserves the topsoil

  3. Improves farming and food production
• Over the past twelve years Oxfam has worked with local villagers in Yatenga (Burkina Faso) training them in the process of bunding
• The Sahel region south of the Sahara is at risk of becoming desert
• The area experiences a dry season which can last up to eight or nine months, during this time rivers dry up and people, animals and crops are jeopardised