It is easy to point to ignorance, overpopulation, or short-term gain. But, single explanations are always inadequate. Reasons lie in the social, political, and economic circumstances that put pressure on the land users to manage land in a non-sustainable way. So, understanding why land users degrade land means embracing the range of relations affecting land users and their intercourse with the world at large. A chain of explanations.
Land degradation occurs because of repeated land use decisions under specific conditions.
Yet, they enter the picture at one point along a chain of explanations. To begin, physical changes in soil and vegetation leading to land degradation become noticeable at a site-for example, sheet and gully erosion, or bush or weed encroachment. This leads to symptoms that impact the land user, such as falling or increasingly variable yields, or increased morbidity and mortality of livestock. Higher still, one can examine how the state affects land management through laws on tenure, prices, or agricultural extension. Finally, one can study important international forces that act through the state to affect land management.