Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
78
8
9
5
Humid
Dry subhumid
Semiarid
Arid and
hyperarid
FIGURE 9.1 Degraded area across agroclimatic zones as share of total global degraded
area, 1981-2003. (Calculated from Bai, Z.G. et al., Global assessment of land degradation
and improvement 1: identification by remote sensing. Report 2008/01. Rome/Wageningen:
FAO/ISRIC, 2008.)
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
13
6
5
5
4
Africa—south of
equator
Indo-China,
Myanmar and
Indonesia
South China
Australia
�e Pampas
FIGURE 9.2 Degraded land area, 1981-2003. The severely degraded regions account for
27% of the total area degraded. The rest of the degraded area is located in areas with less severe
land degradation. (Calculated from Bai, Z.G. et al., Global assessment of land degradation
and improvement 1: identification by remote sensing. Report 2008/01. Rome/Wageningen:
FAO/ISRIC, 2008; UNICEF, http://www.childinfo.org/mortality_ufmrcountrydata.php . )
as an indicator of poverty, Bai et al. (2008) observed a strong correlation between
poverty and land degradation.
However, disaggregated analysis shows an interesting picture. Consistent with the
work of Bai et al. (2008), North America, Europe, and Australia show low poverty
and increase in the NDVI, while Africa south of the equator shows high poverty
and decrease in the NDVI ( Figure 9.3 ). Contrary to the work of Bai et al. (2008), the
NDVI increased in most western and Central African countries north of the equator
and south of the Sahelian region. Likewise, the NDVI increased in much of northern
and western India, Pakistan, and Papua New Guinea while poverty levels were high.
This shows that other factors mediate the impact of poverty on the NDVI. We briefly
 
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