For use as information. It would be a mistake to view the various ecological trends such as desertification as isolated, localized threats. Local threats they certainly are. But, they also form a mosaic whose patterns help define many of the key global concerns of our age -issues which, directly or indirectly, touch upon the lives of everyone.
Desertification is a complex phenomena whose effects are manifested socially.
The hardships suffered by the millions who stay behind in a land gradually losing all its productivity and the millions of those who decide to leave their impoverished surroundings to an even more miserable existence in an urban setting - are the social manifestations of this malaise. They may have no security of tenure on their land or even for the trees they plant. Programmes in the past to control desertification have had limited success. Those which succeeded did so only in some areas and only for limited periods. Even small projects which were successful have seldom been replicable over large areas.