ABSTRACT

As the last two decades have steadily unfolded, the mounting crisis in the Sahel1 has forced itself on to the front page of the environmental debate. Well before the greenhouse effect or acid rain became public concerns or captured the attention of science, the desperate situation in the Sahel had become headline news. To western countries it represented the quintessence of a major environmental emergency. In this region of the world the crisis has been evident for a long time. Its most striking manifestation is a chronic deficit in plant production, that periodically reaches such a critical level that famine strikes humans and decimates livestock. The years 1973 and 1974, when the West finally became aware of the problem, were particularly acute.