Desertification in Africa - Critique and an Alternative Approach

In English This article critically reviews the international debate on desertification, its status, rate as well as causes and consequences. The article rejects the commonly used concept of a degrading environment, but tries to explain the environmental problems as symptoms of a wider economic and political crisis. An alternative approach applying systems analysis of the entire socio-eco-system to the study of desertification and land degradation is discussed, with examples from the Western Sudan