Desertification: Causes, Impacts and Consequences - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Desertification: Causes, Impacts and Consequences write by Roy H. Behnke. This book was released on 2015-12-07. Desertification: Causes, Impacts and Consequences available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. It now seems incontrovertible (as Alessandra Giannini has demonstrated) that the series of Sahelian droughts that began in the early 1970s were driven by changes in sea surface temperatures and that they were not caused by local land use mismanagement in the Sahel itself. Combined with the apparent re-greening of the Sahel, these findings effectively close a long-standing policy and scientific debate (in which the lead authors of this book participated) on the causes and extent of desertification in the Sahel. The opportunity now presents itself to treat this debate as a historical object lesson in the relationship between science, the formation of public opinion, and international policy-making in the context of climate change. In short, what might the ‘great Sahelian desertification boondoggle’ have to tell us about current attempts to come to grips with climate change?
Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South
Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South write by Simone Lucatello. This book was released on 2019-10-10. Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This volume integrates a conceptual framework with participatory methodologies to understand the complexities of dryland socio-ecological systems, and to address challenges and opportunities for stewardship of future drylands and climate change in the global south. Through several case studies, the book offers a transdisciplinary and participatory approach to understand the complexity of socio-ecological systems, to co-produce accurate resource management plans for sustained stewardship, and to drive social learning and polycentric governance. This systemic framework permits the study of human-nature interrelationships through time and in particular contexts, with a focus on achieving progress in accordance with the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development. The book is divided into four main sections: 1) drylands and socio-ecological systems, 2) transdisciplinarity in drylands, 3) interculturality in drylands, and 4) the governance of drylands. Expert contributors address topics such as pastoralism and the characteristics of successful agricultural lands, the sustainable development goals and drylands, dryland modernization, and arid land governance with a focus on Mexico. The volume will be of interest to dryland researchers, sustainable development practitioners and policymakers.
Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands
Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands write by Mahesh K. Gaur. This book was released on 2017-08-30. Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This edited volume is devoted to the examination of the implications of the inevitable changes wrought by global change on the welfare and livelihoods of tens of millions of people who live in dryland regions. Global change is more than just climate change and the ramifications of changing trade patterns (geopolitical and economic aspects), the shift to the market economy, demographic factors (population growth, urbanization and re-settlement), receive attention here. Land use change specialists, policy makers and natural resource management agencies will find the book very useful. Chapters focus on examples that are drawn from a number of sources including previously unpublished studies on the impact of climate change, markets and economics on pastoralist and dryland farming households. The key focus is to provide readers with insights into the real world implications of change (including an analysis of the drivers of change) on these vulnerable groups within dryland societies. The role of humans as agents of these changes is canvassed. A regional analysis of the world's drylands is also performed including those in Australia, Argentina, India, North America, China, North Africa, Central Asia and Southern Africa.
The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands
The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands write by A.J. Dietz. This book was released on 2006-04-11. The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Sahelian West Africa has recovered from the disastrous droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. People have learned to adapt to risk and uncertainty in fragile dryland environments. They, as well as global change scientists, are worried about the impact of climate change on these West African drylands. What do the experiences of the last thirty years say about the preparedness for higher temperatures, lower rainfall, and even more variability? Detailed studies on Dryland West Africa as a whole, and on Burkina Faso, Mali and Northern Ghana in particular show an advanced coping behaviour and increased adaptation, but also major differences in vulnerability and coping potential. Climate change preparedness programmes have only just started and require more robust support, and more specific social targeting, for a population which is rapidly growing, even more rapidly urbanising, and further integrating in a globalised economy. This book is the first of its kind with a comprehensive analysis of climate change experiences in West African drylands, with attention for pathways of change and the diversity of adaptation options available. This book is of interest to scientists studying global and climate change, especially dealing with issues of adaptation. Social scientists, economists, geographers and policy makers concerned with West Africa should also read this book.
The End of Desertification?
The End of Desertification? - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The End of Desertification? write by Roy H. Behnke. This book was released on 2016-04-12. The End of Desertification? available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The question in the title of this book draws attention to the shortcomings of a concept that has become a political tool of global importance even as the scientific basis for its use grows weaker. The concept of desertification, it can be argued, has ceased to be analytically useful and distorts our understanding of social-environmental systems and their resiliency, particularly in poor countries with variable rainfall and persistent poverty. For better policy and governance, we need to reconsider the scientific justification for international attempts to combat desertification. Our exploration of these issues begins in the Sahel of West Africa, where a series of severe droughts at the end of the 20th century led to the global institutionalization of the idea of desertification. It now seems incontrovertible that these droughts were not caused primarily by local land use mismanagement, effectively terminating a long-standing policy and scientific debate. There is now an opportunity to treat this episode as an object lesson in the relationship between science, the formation of public opinion and international policy-making. Looking beyond the Sahel, the chapters in this book provide case studies from around the world that examine the use and relevance of the desertification concept. Despite an increasingly sophisticated understanding of dryland environments and societies, the uses now being made of the desertification concept in parts of Asia exhibit many of the shortcomings of earlier work done in Africa. It took scientists more than three decades to transform a perceived desertification crisis in the Sahel into a non-event. This book is an effort to critically examine that experience and accelerate the learning process in other parts of the world.
