The continent of Africa may be enduring one of its greatest triumphs in dealing with the loss of land due to desertification and deforestation. Both of these pose degradation to the fragile ecosystems in the dry land.
Degradation is caused mostly by man and is normal in areas of poverty and underdevelopment.
This is concentrated in the land surface area between 77 degrees South and 57 degrees South particularly Africa and Asia. Many efforts have been made to stop desertification but the General Assembly decided it was time to make this one of the top priorities at a UN Conference on Desertification in 1977. It was decided here that humans were at the heart of the desertificaton problem either as, actors or victims. For years it has been debated on how to punish the actors and support the victims. Land degradation is a precursor to desertification and although land degradation may occur in any zone, desertification would only be triggered when this occurs in a dry zone.