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The Expanding Sahara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

J. L. Cloudsley-Thompson
J. L. Cloudsley-Thompson
Affiliation:
Professor of Zoology, Birkbeck College, University of London, England; formerly professor of Zoology, University of Khartoum, Sudan
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Extract

The belts of savanna lying to the south of the Sahara are described. Evidence is then presented which suggests that these have been created from forest by shifting cultivation and the use of fire: they have probably developed contemporaneously with the evolution of Man and increase in human population. The effect of climatic changes in creating desert are discussed, and the conclusion is reached that present conditions in much of the Sahara have been engendered almost entirely by human activities. These include felling of trees for firewood and charcoal, or to make their leaves accessible to stock in times of drought and, even more important, overgrazing—especially by goats. Finally, it is suggested that, in the long term, agriculture may not be the most promising way of developing arid regions. Overstocking the savanna and desert must inevitably lead to disaster.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , Spring 1974 , pp. 5 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1974

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