Countermeasures for Desertification:the Social Science Perspective

摘要

The term desertification, defined by the UN in 1994, is mainly concerned with natural phenomenon. The definition seems inadequate from the perspective of political and social science. Thus, a definition with consideration for social science is given as follows: desertification is a serial phenomenon involving destruction of vegetation, land degradation or abandonment, worsening of local human living conditions and threat to civilization, all caused by over-loading, over cultivation and/or over-lumbering, due to climate change, increase in population, income inequality and poverty in arid, semi-arid, and semi-humid areas. The worsening of living conditions is a symptom of poverty. Global desertification is a form of "new poverty" on global scale. This "new poverty" is different from the traditional poverty caused by low income and unemployment because even people in high income brackets will experience it from the worsening of all living conditions.