The Sahara desert was once much wetter and inhabited, but climate change turned it into the vast sandy desert it is today. While some areas are protected, much of the Sahara is at risk of degradation from hunting, deforestation, and overgrazing. Conservation efforts like limiting hunting and deforestation could help maintain a balance between humans and the desert environment. Climate change may eventually cause the Sahara to transform back into a savanna over the next centuries.

1. Anosh Ali
&
Rodrigo Mojarro

4.  The Sahara desert is the second biggest desert
after Antarctica.
 It is 9400000 square kilometers long covering
most of North Africa.
 It stretches from the Red Sea including parts of
the Mediterranean coast to the even the
Atlantic Ocean.

5.  Historically, thousands of
years ago people lived on
the edge of the desert.
 The Sahara was much
wetter than it is now.
• Over 30000 petrogphys of river animals like
crocodiles have been found. Also have
found many fossils of dinosaurs.

6.  Modern day the Sahara is not full of vegetation
like it once
 Due to a climate change the savannah changed
into the sandy desert we now see.
• Some
Mediterranean
plants grow here
such as the olive
tree.
• The region has been this way for about 4200
years.

8.  Not much of the desert has been changed
besides small cities and settlements usually by
oasis.
 However, the local pressure on natural
resources can be intense. The remaining
populations of large mammals have been
greatly reduced by hunting for food and
recreation

9. • There are many big
animals that are edible
such as camels ostrich
antelope and dorcas gazelle.
• Some of these animals
can live without drinking
water for over a year.
• Lack of illness, crime,
pollution, predators
• Beautiful
• Solar energy

11. • The prospects for the Sahara are
not to bad, however.
• With continued hunting in regions
of the Sahara, the populations of
certain animals that inhabit it may
decrease in the future.
• The Sahara will have less trees due
to increased deforestation and
vegetation will also decrease due to
pastoralism.
• However in the next centuries due
to climate change the Sahara will
warm up to about 5-6 degrees.
• Evaporation in the ocean will cause
the Sahara to become a savanna and
with more rainfall in the future it
will become greener and have more
vegetation.

12.  The Sahara overall is not heavily
protected because many people do not
live within its range and the people
who do inhabit it are nomadic.
 The Banc d’ Arguin National Park and
Reserve Integrale de Cap Blanc of the
Atlantic Coastal desert in Mauritania
are protected areas. Both of these
protected areas are degraded due to
drought, overgrazing, and hunting.
 The Ahaggar National Park and Parc
National de Tassili N’ajjer are also
protected areas from the Montane
Xeric woodlands. These areas have
minor woodcutting and poaching
problems. These areas however are
strongly protected due to tourism.

13.  What can be done to maintain balance between
the Saharan desert and humans is a strict law
that would reduce the hunting of animals.
 There should also be a restriction that would
limit the amount of trees being cut as
deforestation is increasing in the area.

14.  World Wildlife. 2011. World Wildlife Fund. 27 Nov 2011.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa13
04_full.html
 World Wildlife. 2011. World Wildlife Fund. 27 Nov 2011.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa13
32_full.html
 World Wildlife. 2011. World Wildlife Fund. 27 Nov 2011.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa13
27_full.html
 Discover Magazine. 25 Oct 2006. Kalmbach Publishing Company. 27 Nov
2011. http://discovermagazine.com/2006/oct/sahara-desert-savanna-
climate
 Wikipedia. 30 Nov 2011. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 27 Nov 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_desert
 Foley A. Jonathan, Michael T. Coe, Marten Scheffer, and Guiling Wang.
“Regime Shifts im the Sahara and Sahel: Interactions between Ecological
and Climatic Systems in Northern Africa” Ecosystems 6.6 (2003): 527.
 Zaimeche Eddine Salah. “The Consequences of Rapid Deforestation: A
North African Example” Ambio 23.2 (Mar., 1994): 138.