ABSTRACT
At UNCOD, another meaning was given to desertification. This time, the term was defined as the ‘diminution or destruction of the biological potential of the land, and can lead ultimately to desert-like con ditions’ (United Nations 1978). Although the definition did not expressly mention that deserti fication was a phenomenon of the world’s drylands, the conference report was clearly concerned with land degradation in the arid regions of the world. In 1990, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations agency responsible for taking leadership in combatting desertification, attempted to clarify the questions people had by ask ing a group of experienced scientists to redefine it (Dregne et al. 1991). The new definition explicitly mentions that desertification is land degradation in drylands. Odingo (1990), in an excellent discussion of the disagreements and confusion about what desertification is and its significance, proposed a definition that was a forerunner of the revised UNEP definition. The new UNEP definition says that desertification is ‘land degradation in arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas resulting mainly from adverse human impact.’ Although not mentioned in the definition, drought is understood to be the other significant contributor to land degradation in dry lands. Human activities, however, are the main cause.
