desertification it is the process of transforming and impoverishing soils, making them similar or equal to the environment of a desert. This process is the result of human action on nature.
This phenomenon only occurs in regions that have very dry climates: the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid climate regions.
The main causes of desertification are deforestation, intensive use (without breaks) of the soil, fires and inadequate agricultural practices (such as the use of pesticides in plantations).
Deforestation happens for the practice of agriculture, for cattle raising or for the use of wood as firewood in the manufacture of commercial products. As a result, the soil is left unprotected and suffers from the heating caused by the sun and from the processes that form erosion. These factors contribute to desertification.
This area is going through the desertification process
The effects of desertification are very serious and varied, in addition to affecting the environment, the economy and society in general.
The environmental damage caused by desertification is the erosion, which becomes increasingly larger and more frequent, the poverty of soils, which become infertile, reduction or disappearance of vegetation and animals, among others.
The social damages of desertification happen when this phenomenon affects people's homes or areas that would be used to plant and produce food for the population.
The economic losses are due to the devaluation of desertified lands, the unproductive agricultural soils and the loss of space for economic practices, which will have to be developed elsewhere, causing more deforestation and more damage environmental issues.
Deforestation is one of the main causes of desertification
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
