A Framework of Conceptual Principles for Addressing Desertification
The term “desertification” is burdened by its colonial origin and later development based more on ad hoc effects descriptions than on proper understanding of the socio-ecological processes involved. It is ambiguous and cases are difficult to detect for two reasons. First, desertification is often ta...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | otro |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/418559 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/418559 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Land degradation Land degradation neutrality Land use change Telecoupling Systemic approach Drylands |
| Sumario: | The term “desertification” is burdened by its colonial origin and later development based more on ad hoc effects descriptions than on proper understanding of the socio-ecological processes involved. It is ambiguous and cases are difficult to detect for two reasons. First, desertification is often tackled from a symptomatic, rather than systemic, viewpoint. Second, desertification is characterized using an array of attributes, a variable subset of which must be present, but none of them being decisive. In this essay, we propose a set of principles a case must fulfil to qualify as desertification. These are: (1) Desertification causes land degradation; (2) Prioritizing economic efficiency exclusively results in negative environmental and social externalities; (3) Desertification takes place in coupled but spatially separated land subsystems; (4) Desertification affects large geographical areas; (5) Resources origins and sinks in a desertification setup may be spatially telecoupled; (6) Early detecting of desertification requires to combine “slow” and “fast” variables of socio-ecosystems; (7) Abrupt land use changes can foster land degradation; (8) The perception of some "fast" socioeconomic variables can lead to a misperception of desertification; (9) Aquifers and their associated basins make coupled exploited subsystems of desertification; (10) Desertification risk is different from desertification condition; and (11) A main problem facing desertification monitoring and remediation is the desertification baseline. This proposal is timely in view of some recent frameworks that demand a precise and consistent characterization of desertification: Sustainable Development Goals in general, and particularly Land Degradation Neutrality, and Convergence of Evidence. |
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