Nigeria Desertification

Throughout Nigeria, specifically northern Nigeria, the problem of desertification is a well known concern. This issue, affecting over 35 million inhabitants of northern Nigeria, has been steadily progressing. Farmers relying mainly on agriculture are being forced to stop their farming because the productive land is being significantly reduced year after year. The average amount of deforestation between 1978 and 1995 was approximately 350,000 hectares each year. Much of Nigeria already having unusable land, it is very significant to the citizens of this country that the sand dunes of the Sahara desert are encroaching on their limited amount of usable land. Each year the Sahara desert moves at least .6km southward into Nigeria, causing oasis and ponds to disappear and altering the lives of millions of people (Olori).

A combination of various practices in Nigeria has cause desertification to have such a significant impact on the land and the people. Many of these practices worsening the land are a result of the socio-economic conditions of the area, which in turn continues to deteriorate the conditions of the poverty-stricken. Wood burning is an action the poor have taken to meet their daily needs of cooking because it is the cheapest means of doing so. Nigerians in poor urban areas have been obtain more than 30 million tonnes of firewood annually (Olori) due to a lack of other means for fuel or construction. The removal of these trees is causing the soil to degrade to the sandy conditions of the Sahara (Medugu).

Other than the removal of important vegetation, such as the trees, there is also the overuse of the land that has caused desertification problems. Many poor Nigerians resort to bush burning, which is a form of deforestation, attempt to use bush burning as a way to prepare the land for farming. It is a technique meant to ‘stimulate growth of dormant grass buds,’ in order to grow a new set of crops. This damages the soils similarly to removing trees for firewood, and the root of the problem is also set in poverty (Medugu). Ultimately, if Nigeria wishes to reverse the desertification process going on in the northern section of their nation it is necessary to confront the poverty issue going on.

Efforts in all areas of the desertification are in progress. In 2002 the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, ordered ‘one billion tree-seedlings to be planted and distributed to farmers over the next five years.’ ''With the country losing as much as 350,999 hectares of land yearly to desertification, it could not afford to watch while arable land is being lost to desert encroachment. It is because of this, that the government approved the establishment of a Green Belt across most of the northern parts of the country, spanning a length of 1,500 kilometers and a width of one kilometre,'' (Obasanjo). A goal of President Obasanjo is to involve communities in a sustainable way of living that benefits the currently poverty-stricken population.

The Desertification of Chad

Chad was, and still to an extent is a country with two completly different climates. The lower part is a tropical region while the north-northwest region is now broad plains of desert.

It was not always like this in Chad though. Not until the 1980's when the country processed between 13.5-16 million hectares of forest and woodland. This is causing major desertification in Chad.

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Desertification is also due to climate change. The rate at which this is all happening is alarming to some because it is harming the biodiversity in Chad. Because of all the overgrazing and periodic drought Chad also has it is causing soil erosion. Vegetation can only survive so long without water before it begins to die, and the land mass turns into a desert. This information was gathered from galegroup.com

According to desertification.wordpress.com,the UNHCR is trying to help. "The only way to fight desertification in the long term is to engage in large reforestation programes." said Andrea Maini, a UNHCR Environmental Officer. The UNHCR plant 300,000 slaping a year in Chad (60% have lived) and locals have planed 1.2 million acacia trees and fruit trees (lemon and mango). UNHCR is supplying wood and other sources of fuel so that people will not cut down more trees.

http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/mybib.php?printBib=1

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Ghana

In the late 19th century the southern half of Ghana was covered by hardwood forest.
In 1995 only 39.7% of the country was forested and around 1.3% of forest is lost every year. Deforestation, overgrazing, and periodic drought have led to desertification. The rural population suffers with lower crops and livestock productivity. Desertification will ruin farmlands and livelihoods.
The reason Ghana has lost so much of its forest is because the country is the 3rd largest producer of cacao. Since they needed to produce so much large parts of the forest were cleared to grow cacao. The sales of cacao dropped at one point so the country started exporting timber to get revenue. These two factors are the main cause of desertification in Ghana. In 2007 49 out of 138 districts were in desert.
In order to fix the problem in 1994 Ghana banned the export of raw logs. Now 4.8% of the country's land is protected to save the forests. People are still illegally logging and that is severely effecting the remaining forests.

- www.ghanaweb.com/Ghanahomepage/geography/nature.php
- http://allafrica.com/stories/201001181277.html