Rural Land Degradation Flashcards
Explain the impacts of rural land degradation on a semi-arid or rainforest area you have studied
(8) – 7 explain marks and 1 example mark.
In the Sahel, lack of rain means that soils may dry out and become eroded by the wind (1 explain).
This could allow sand storms to form which could get in and pollute water (1 explain).
As there is a loss of fertile soil this will mean they cannot grow crops, reducing yields (1 mark).
This will mean that farmers cannot sell crops which means a lack of money for education and healthcare (1 explain mark). As there is a lack of crops, this will mean a lack of food supply – causing famine (1 explain).
29% of Sub Saharan Africa are under nourished (1 example mark).
Due to the poor farming conditions, there is a large scale migration from rural areas to urban areas causing overcrowding in cities (1 explain) such as Ougadougou.
Many other people may end up in refugee camps which may form a dependency on international aid – weakening independence of country (1 explain).
Explain techniques employed to manage rural land degradation in a rainforest or semi arid area that you have studied; and
comment on the effectiveness of these techniques (12).
In the Sahel, The Great Green Wall is a 7000km long planned band of trees – the roots from these trees will help bind soil together and therefore prevent wind erosion. The project also aims to deal with water shortages by creating water retention ponds and drought resistant plant such as Acacia. The project has had mixed success with 50,000 trees already planted in Senegal, but it does cost a lot of money to implement which the developing Sahel countries cannot afford – they had to borrow over $2 billion from World Bank. In Burkina Faso, stone lines have been put down on fields to slow down run off during heavy rain and therefore allow infiltration into soil. This is a low-cost solution which farmers can do for themselves without being dependent on others. Since early 1990s, third of a million hectares of degraded land has been reclaimed by this method. Hafir Projects in Sudan are when water reservoirs are constructed to maintain water supplies to help deal with droughts and improve harvests – these are often down with charities such as Mercy Corps. This gives locals extra free time for things such as education as they can get water in 15 minutes instead of 6 hours a day walking. In Eritrea, terraces have been built on steep degraded hillsides to slow down water runoff and catch soil erosion through the wind. Levelled land can also be used to plant trees or crops – water captured can infiltrate into soil. This project is labour intensive as requires farmers to constantly maintain them. Although soil loss has reduced by about 5 times each year.
