Desert Development: How Does It Relate to Anti Desertification Measures? - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 423

5 How Can We Prevent or Reverse Desertification and Land

Degradation (DLDD)?

Prevention is an important consideration but outside of the scope of this topic.
Effective prevention of desertification requires both local management and macro-
policy approaches that promote sustainability of ecosystem services. It is advisable
to focus on prevention, because attempts to rehabilitate degraded areas are costly
and tend to deliver limited results. Measures designed to reverse DLDD are outlined
for a variety of situations from the deserts of China, Africa and the Middle East to
the high rainfall regions in Asia. Some aspects of this question will be also be dealt
with in Chap. 21 .
There are two important questions

Why are actions needed ? Desertification and land degradation (DLDD) lead to loss
of productivity impacting livelihoods and economic viability leading in the worst
situations to worsening poverty. Ecological stability is another consequence that
affects sustainability in the long term.
What actions can be taken to prevent desertification and land degradation ?
Because DLDD is an on-going process some actions may be more urgent than
others and temporary or stop gap measures may need to be employed. However,
since DLDD processes involve many issues - bio-physical, socio-economic
and cultural and spiritual aspects (Zhang et al. 2007 ) and necessarily need
political, legislative, institutional, and policy reforms. Once these are in place,
administrative follow up and enforcement of regulations is required. In short,
creation of an enabling environment is a first step. (Squires 2012 , see also Chap.
21 ) .

The principal benefits to society from arresting and reversing land degradation
will be higher household incomes, increased productivity of farming systems,
conservation of biodiversity, increased carbon sequestration, and fewer floods and
landslides.
More sustainable land use practices can help but sustainable farming systems
and practices will be adopted when, and only if, they offer farmers a convincing
opportunity to earn higher profits than from any other systems. There really are
two clear and fundamental elements of “better land stewardship ”- awareness
and action . That means (i) recognizing our collective responsibility to retain the
quality and abundance of our natural resources and (ii) putting that awareness into
action by making the appropriate decisions for how to best use and manage these
resources not only for today but for future generations as well. This has aspects
of improved stewardship but needs to be seen against a background necessity for
livestock keepers and farmers to provide a livelihood.
Finally, we must remember that current systems often are used because they
were used the year before, are proven, reduce short-term risk, and require modest
investment and a low level of management skill and equipment.