It is often said that a barren landscape has been so ruined by human activity (desertified) that it is so damaged that it can no longer be used. If the damage is irreversible this is probably the true but often desertification is only in the eye of the beholder. Time and nurture may see the landscape restored. Desertification, where it occurs, usually results from overuse attributable to rising population, increased grazing and/or over-cultivation. Hand in hand with these may be the destruction of vegetation for firewood, excessive use of vehicles, or even wholesale destruction by mining and quarrying. The lowering of the water table by over-abstraction (see Water Supplies) cannot help the re-growth of vegetation.
There are also natural reasons why an area may remain arid and largely unusable:
- Salt water springs
- Changing climate
In the Badia there are the warning signs of desertification:
- Dust storms caused by the breaking up of the regolith for cultivation or grazing.
- Abandoned barren areas where crops have previously been grown under polythene sheeting.
- Wholesale removal of regolith for quarrying and mining.
Huge areas of the Badia appear to be desertified but it is likely that with appropriate management this could be reversed in some places. Witness the BRDC’s rangeland management project at Tal Rimah and the regeneration of vegetation within the land held by the RSCN’s Shaumari Wildlife Reserve.
Future work needs to focus on long-term assessments of population, population density, livestock levels, vegetation and crop cover, water use and water table levels. Are current cropping practices ‘appropriate’ in this landscape?
