much more difficult to exploit and thus having a much lowercarrying capacity
for animals and humans. This landscape change has all sorts of ramifications such
as increasing temperatures and suppression of rain because of increased dust in the
air. The re-establishment of previous grass and tree species is problematic because
desertification has altered the water balance in a marginal zone. In all respects,
much of the Sahel has become the desert.
How permanent is desertification? The term usually implies finality to the land-
scape’s status but this is not certain. This is a question of immense practical impor-
tance. Over long spans of time such as hundreds and thousands of years, there are
many examples of regions undergoing desertification and then becoming greener.
However, can desertification be reversed in shorter time frames? This has been
debated under the name of “permanent” versus “temporary” desertification and
is in no way resolved.
The plight of the Sahel has led to the investigation of desertification in other
places such as parts of the U.S. Great Plains (the “Dust Bowl”), southern Africa,
Australia, and Central Asia. Large amounts of the world’s desert fringes have been
identified as having moderate to very high potential for desertification. The specter
of CO 2 -induced global warming holds the threat of increased desertification if the
number and intensity of droughts increase.
In the 1970s it was posited that the degradation of land causes desertification
because of increases in albedo. This simplistic explanation has been discarded.
The bulk of the research suggests that desertification does notcausedryness, but
it is a factor exacerbating the impacts of natural droughts. The human/environment
connection is undoubtedly present but it is not a convincing climate control. The
geographic community has come to understand that although desertification
exists, the human imprint does not cause desert climate. This does not mean that
the topic of desertification will be ignored. The Food and Agricultural Organiza-
tion of the United Nations houses a large amount of information about desertifica-
tion. Many developing countries have formulated plans for slowing and preventing
desertification. There have been limited successes in local cases, but there is no
template that can be used worldwide. The desertification of previously usable land
is real and of concern for the fifth of humanity living in arid and semiarid lands.Devolution
A process signifying the transfer of political power from a larger geographical
entity to smaller, regional units. A reflection ofcore-peripheryrelations, devolu-
tion often occurs in response tocentrifugal forceswithin a governed political100 Devolution