Deserts and Desertification in Other African Countries - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 131

Part III
Deserts and Desertification in Other
African Countries
There are four chapters in this part. The focus shifts first to East Africa and southern
Africa with examples from Kenya and Lesotho. Because of the differences in
climate, population density, stage of development and predominant land use there
are differences in the approach to desertification control.
Lesotho is a mountainous country with soils that are erosion-prone. The land use
practices are a cause of accelerated land degradation. Combating desertification and
accelerated land degradation involves a focus on soil erosion control. Kenya has
more varied suite of landscapes from mountains to vast plains. Livestock husbandry
plays an important role in the land use pattern and brings with it a series of problems
related to rangeland degradation, but Kenya also has large number of subsistence
farmers and has made many efforts to control soil loss, and excessive fuel wood
collection is part of the strategy.
Desertification and accelerated land degradation are problems throughout Africa
as these four examples show. Chapter 9 from Chad deals with the problems of a
small landlocked country surrounded by desert, whilst the efforts in Niger in the
aftermath of the Medium Term Action Plan (MTAP) are outlined in Chap. 10 .