Desert Environments of Republic of Chad - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 171

8 Demography and Population Movements

The impact of climate degradation on Chad's ecosystems is accentuated by the
pressure exerted on the environment by Chad's strong demographic growth (2.5 %
per year). Migratory movements that occur under the combined effects of war and
drought have, moreover, profoundly modified the socio-economic equilibrium. The
social structure of herder-farmers has been disturbed The presence and sometimes
settlement of rearer-herders in certain areas has brought about tensions with farmers
Encouraging rearer-herders to shift to farming activities has not been achieved
without social problems as new agricultural lands need to be found for these people.

9 Desert Encroachment Problems

Like most states of the African Sahel, Chad has suffered from the encroachment
of the desert. Today, the phenomenon of desertification affects the entire country
of Chad. However, the most affected areas are located between 12 ı and 22 ı north
latitude, covering an area of 1,091,420 km 2 approximately 85 % of the country.
Traditional herding practices and the need for firewood and wood for con-
struction have exacerbated the problem. In the early 1980s, the country possessed
between 13.5 and 16 Mha of forest and woodlands, representing a decline of
almost 14 % from the early 1960s. To what extent this decline was caused by
climatic changes and to what extent by herding and cutting practices was unknown.
Regulation was difficult because some people traditionally made their living selling
wood and charcoal for fuel and wood for construction to people in the urban
center. Although the government attempted to limit wood brought into the capital,
the attempts have not been well managed, and unrestricted cutting of woodlands
remains a problem.

10 Combating Desertification and Controlling

Desert Encroachment

These twin problems are inextricably linked in Chad in the same way that they
are seen in many of the case studies in this topic. The original thinking about
desertification was that it represented as “a process of drying which turns previously
productive areas into areas classically defined as desert or wasteland”. Later,
the concept morphed into something more general like “degradation of formerly
productive land through a combination of human-induced and climatic factors” (see
Chap. 1 ) . 'Fighting the desert' is a recurring theme in many of the case studies
presented here.