Annotated Directory of Organizations Dealing with Desertification Control and Dryland Development

Desertification as a serious threat to the future of mankind became a prominent issue following the devastating famines of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the Sahel zone of West Africa and Ethiopia. These famines were repeated in the mid-1980s. The decreases in food production which result in famine are due to a complex of factors which causes lower land productivity. The most important factor in long term decreases in land productivity is the phenomenon of desertification, where vegetation cover is lost and soil is eroded or degraded by nutrient depletion, salinization or waterlogging.