Marking the International Year of Desertification in 2006, this eight part series, with a local presenter, documents the struggle against land degradation and water shortage. Human and livestock populations are increasing fastest in the regions of the world least able to meet the demand for more water and more fertile land.
Episode 1: Caribbean
This is a film about the contrasting fortunes of two countries, Haiti and Costa Rica, which share the Caribbean. In densely populated Haiti, 30 million tons of arable lands disappear every year, impoverishing the soil and diminishing the possibilities of cultivation. Whereas Costa Rica has established a network of reserves covering over a quarter of the country and providing incentives to villages not to destroy watersheds.
Episode 2: China
Since Mao’s Great Leap Forward nearly 50 years ago, China has lost an area the size of Greenland to the desert. Waking up to the scale of the crisis, the government is mobilising people and resources on a mass scale. It aims to reclaim a quarter of a million square kilometres of land lost to the desert by 2020.
Episode 3: India
In the coastal regions of Gujarat, the human population has increased by 62% in just 20 years, creating an increased need for water for domestic consumption and farming. When too much fresh groundwater is pumped from aquifers close to seawater, the change in gradients caused by the pumping can result in a flow of salt water into the well.
Episode 4: Jordan
Ninety percent of the Jordan receives less than 25 centimetres of rain a year. Without the farmers it would revert to desert. Down the centuries they were ingenious at developing sophisticated methods to use water sparingly. But Jordan, with a burgeoning human population swelled by refugees from the Middle East conflicts, faces a crisis.
Episode 5: Morocco
Today the main threat to the scarce Saharan grazing lands is not drought but tourism. The nomads’ way of life, so finely attuned to the desert, appears doomed as the desert itself becomes “desertified”.
Episode 6: Niger
Niger, on the fringes of the Sahel, is in the front-line against an advancing desert. Villages have been abandoned to the dunes. It is the classic image of desertification. And yet, despite a major drought, in this film there is strong evidence that some villagers are reversing the trend and re-greening their farms and pastures.
Episode 7: Spain
Desertification is most often considered to be a problem afflicting poor nations. But large areas of developed nations such as the USA, Australia and Spain are also affected on a huge scale. In this film we go to Spain, where half the country is defined as “arid” or “semi-arid”.
Episode 8: Tanzania
In 2006 Tanzania experienced a stubborn drought. For the first time major rivers stopped flowing and there were water shortages even in the capital, Dar es Salaam. In this programme, we go on a journey to the forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains, the water towers for the country.
The World Debate: Advancing Sands, Deserts and Migration
Why is the world ignoring desertification? Is competition for dwindling resources in dryland areas a major contributor to ethnic conflict? To what extent does desertification contribute to illegal migration to rich countries? This debate was staged at the World Conservation Union headquarters near Geneva.
Continent(s):
Europe / Africa / Middle East / Asia Pacific / Central America /
Topic(s):
Agriculture / Conservation / Development / Environment / Technology /
Audio:
English, French
Duration:
22'
Location(s):
China, Costa Rica & Haiti, India, Jordan, Morocco, Spain, Tanzania, Niger
