Get ready for European Deserts!

Desertification is a growing threat in the EU with significant effects on the use of land. The term is usually used to describe human- and climate-related processes leading to problems affecting dry areas, such as diminished food production, soil infertility, decreases in the land’s natural resilience, and reduced water quality.

Projections on climate change in Europe show that the risk of desertification is increasing. Hot semi-deserts already exist in southern Europe, where the climate is transforming from temperate to dry. This phenomenon is extending northwards. The long period of high temperatures and low rainfall in Europe in the summer of 2018 reminded us of the pressing importance of this problem.

There is no EU-level strategy on desertification and land degradation. Rather, there is a range of strategies, action plans and spending programmes, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the EU Forest Strategy, or the EU strategy on adaptation to climate change, which are relevant to combating desertification, but which do not focus on it.

Desertification is caused by both human activity and climate change.

• Overuse or inefficient use of water, e.g. through poor irrigation techniques, reduces the overall water supply in an area, potentially leading to vegetation loss and eventually desertification. Overgrazing and deforestation can lead to desertification because both remove or damage the vegetation that protects the land and keeps it moist and fertile.

  
  

• Studies have found that land abandonment can be a factor making land more vulnerable to land degradation and desertification. However lack of human activity can also bring benefits, such as soil recovery, increased biodiversity or active reforestation.

  
  

• As average temperatures rise and droughts and other severe weather events increase in frequency and intensity due to climate change, dryland degradation (and thus desertification) tends to increase. When land is extremely dry, it is susceptible to erosion including during flash floods, when topsoil is quickly swept away, further degrading the land surface.