Desertification in the Sahelian and Sudanian zones of West Africa
Gorse, J.
Unasylva 37(150): 2-18
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0041-6436 Document Number: 379376
Based on an extensive new study by the World Bank, the article proposes specific, urgently needed, yet often controversial solutions for alleviating the Sahelian crisis, in the hope of stimulating productive debate and discussion of the problem. Providing firstly a description of the region's physical and geographical characteristics, focus is then centred on issues of drought; desertification and its causes; population structure and growth; demand for resources, resource abuse, and the need to motivate human behaviour towards responding better to environmental change; traditional production systems, their organization, management and some of their common features and capacities; past development activities, and the role of forestry departments within them; ways of improving management strategies and reducing demand on available resources; and areas where governments could implement policy action as a way of helping to solve the problems.