Elena Maria ABRAHAM "Challenges for sustainable development of drylands"

Challenges for sustainable
development of Drylands

Elena María Abraham
National Research and Technological Council (CONICET)
Argentine Institute for Arid Lands Research (IADIZA)
Laboratory of Desertification and Land Management (LaDyOT)

Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas (IADIZA)
CONICET-Gobierno de Mendoza- Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

CONTENTS OF THE PRESENTATION

- Recognizing the value of drylands
- Constraints in drylands
- The issue of resilience in drylands
- The dilemma of development models in drylands


Drylands

REFERENCES

Hyperarid
Arid
Semiarid
Dry subhumid
Humid
Cold climates Source: CRU/UEA, UNEP/GRID
Brandt Line’s Aproximate equatorial scale 1: 115 million


Recognizing the
value of Drylands


Drylands provide multiple goods and
services:
• Biodiversity: uniquely adapted plants and animals
to variable and extreme environments
• Carbon Storage: most of it in the soil
• Energy: alternative energy resources such as wind
and solar power
• Tourism: open, vast, dryland sites are considered
culturally and spiritually important
• Forage and Livestock: some of the highest
livestock densities in the world are in drylands. From
cattle, sheep, and goat herds, to horses and
camels, drylands support a large variety of domestic
animals, which become the source of
meat, milk, wool, and leather products for humans


 Freshwater: freshwater resources in
drylands, often limited and variable in
availability, are important water sources for
drinking, irrigating crops, and supporting wetland
flora and fauna. Water basins in drylands are found
on every continent, ranging from low population
densities (1 person/km2) to high population
densities (nearly 400 people/km2).

 Food Production: dryland ecosystems are also
used extensively for the production of food. Many of
our major food crops, such as
wheat, barley, sorghum, and millet originated in
drylands. Today, wild varieties from these centers of
origin serve as sources of genetic plant material for
developing drought-resistant crop varieties.


 Drylands are at risk of irreversible
degradation, that is, DESERTIFICATION: the loss
of their long-term capacity to supply goods and
services to human populations.

 Desertification in drylands would exacerbate the
conditions of poverty and threaten the livelihoods
of those most dependent on natural resources.
These people are frequently among the poorest in
the world.

 And, living in regions of highly variable rainfall
and periodic drought, they experience high food
insecurity.

 Unfortunately, policies thus far have not been as
effective as possible or uniquely focused on their
attempts to address poverty and inequity issues
in drylands.


 Dryland assessment and management initiatives to
date have failed to generate adequate interest and
funding, largely because investors, development
agencies, and the public have an incomplete
understanding of the full range of valuable goods and
services drylands have to offer.

 Traditionally, emphasis has been placed on the
damage that dryland ecosystems have incurred due to
human activities.

 Support for programs in drylands has the potential to
grow significantly if more attention is called to their
diverse production capacities, while simultaneously
incorporating the optimization of dryland resource
use, focusing on food security and empowering the
participation of the local population into the program’s
objectives and actions.

 For this, we must thoroughly understand what
desertification means as a complex problem.


Constraints in drylands
We are used to assert, that drylands are very fragile
ecosystems. ...how can a system be fragile if it is
capable of reacts immediately at the slightest positive or
negative impulse?...
If the impact is negative, such as overuse or misuse of
water, we reach desertification, but if the impacts are
positive, like a proper use of water –which is indeed a
scarce resource- and for this very reason, there
emerges for instance an oasis with high capacity to
produce food.


THE CASE OF DRYLANDS’S WETLANDS


DRYLANDS RESILIENCIE
sensitivity versus fragility

This is a concept that I want to submit to consideration: let
us not confuse sensitivity and resistance with fragility.

Drylands are sensitive to react swiftly, positively or
negatively, to positive or negative impacts. And there lies
their strength and the opportunity to successfully intervene
in their capability for regeneration and sustenance.


DRYLANDS:

LOW OR HIGH RESILIENCE…


A deployment of strategies for
modeling and adjusting to
change, either cyclic or exceptional, in
practices tied to memories and to
social reproduction strategies, which
organize the actions on natural
resources and enable the groups to
dialogue with change and adjust to it.
.
These conditions allow overcoming the basement of
uncertainty that characterizes drylands, placing
social groups a wide margin above the conditions of
variability


In drylands, these considerations place
the concept of resilience at a very high
level and afford an example for other
ecosystems worldwide which are also
affected by conditions of variability
associated with climate change
scenarios.
Drylands inhabitants have known how to
dialogue over the years with uncertainty
scenarios which will extend to other
areas in the near future and which
constitute one of the major concerns of
environmental conventions and of
national states.


THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEM IN THE THIRD
WORLD

Developing countries are the most
affected because the recovery of their
drylands are worsened by conditions of
poverty, political instability, territorial
imbalance, and concentration processes
typical of globalization.


Desertification is cause and consequence of
unsustainable models for dryland development
Making such development sustainable will require a
Diplachne uninervia
shared view by decision-makers, scientists and
society. Consensus must be attained on basically
two topics:
• 1-discussing, and agreeing on, a model for dryland
development is essential to ensure that the
Eragrostis lugens
ecological complexity of drylands is balanced
against the needs and demands of local
populations.
• 2- the contribution of science through policies
setting up measurement and assessment of
Cortesia cuneifolia processes for the long, medium and short term.

The dilemma of development models in drylands
 Desertification has been favored by development models which have overlooked the
ecological complexity of drylands, the needs and demands of their people and their
cultural and historical heritage.

 It draws attention the absence of debate about what development model we want for
our drylands, it is essential to discuss and agree on what we want and what model
we want to implement.


In this sense it is essential to discuss and
agree on the development model we want for
drylands

Among which development models
can we choose?


ACCCORDING TO UNEP´S “GLOBAL DESERT OUTLOOK” we can
choose:
• From the Cadillac scenario, which means a deep transformation of the
desert natural conditions, with important capital and infrastructure
investment, (remember Las Vegas or the modern huge Arabian Gulf cities)
• To leaving everything as it is, enclosing the arid environment in a bottle

• Halfway between these two extremes is the “development in patches”
“In patches” means developing only those sites with better conditions for
settlement and production (wadis margins, terraces, corridors, oases) and
restore and preserve the rest of the territory


Scenarios of Global Warming and Desertification during the
XXI century

• Whatever model is chosen, science and
technology must form the basis for decision
making.

• Dryland development models must be based
on deep knowledge of the current status of
the system, its capacity for resilience and the
desertification processes affecting
it, highlighting the role of National and
International Observatories.


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