ABSTRACT
The phenomenon known as desertification received widespread attention recently, as witnessed by the creation of the United Nations conference on desertification in Nairobi in 1977, mainly as a result of the impact of extended drought in the West African Sahel in the early 1970s. In the United States, and in other countries, attention of national policymakers was directed toward the form of environmental degradation and a Plan of Action was drawn up to assess desertification in a national context. Desertification is acknowledged to be a complex phenomenon requiring the expertise of researchers in such disciplines as climatology, soil science, meteorology, hydrology, range science, agronomy, and veterinary medicine, as well as geography, political science, economics, and anthropology. Changes in the density of the vegetative cover is an important factor acknowledged by many authors in their definitions of desertification. References to climate in the definitions relate either to climate variability, climate change, or drought.
