External publications

Desertification

Bauer, Steffen
External Publications (2015)

in: Philipp H. Pattberg / Fariborz Zelli (eds.), Encyclopedia of global environmental governance and politics, Cheltenham: Elgar, 356-364

ISBN: 978-1-78254-578-1
Information

Desertification is a contested concept of environmental change that refers to the degradation of drylands. Roughly 70 percent of the world's drylands are considered to be degraded, which affects the livelihoods of about one billion people. This chapter discusses desertification as an issue of sustainable development and reviews key findings on the governance of desertification, the framing of desertification as a global problem, the securitization of desertification and other issue-linkages, notably relating desertification to climate change and the water-energy-land nexus. It concludes with an outlook on the politics of desertification and corresponding institutional developments under the pertinent UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).