From my viewpoint, these ecosystems are not only undervalued but they are historically marginalized and treated as outcasts compared to other ecosystems. Consequently, their capacity to exploit their socio-economic capacities is limited also. Hence, they become worse with time.

They should be valued

A few years ago, I read a book from the 1800s as I remember on how to drain wetlands. Apparently early peoples believed wetlands or swamps were evil, the smell, inability to grow crops, snakes, mosquitos, etc. Many are not educated or made aware of the possibilities to find beauty, uniqueness, etc. even in harsh conditions. Most of us would be ill equipped to deal with these conditions for very long. At least one or perhaps more of Louie Lamour adventure books tells of survival in harsh desert conditions when one becomes aware of its secrets for water and food, escape from heat and learning to set direction in a barren landscape. Some lands have become dry and barren due to anthropogenic practices.

Because most "drylands" in the northern hemisphere...from Spain and Morocco to the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, western India and the Gobi desert, are all man-made after we invented agriculture and domesticated grazing animals. Then, when we eliminated the Pseudomonas-host plants (see https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds ) then the drylands went from arid perennial grasslands to annuals plants with scattered shrubs and barren deserts.

That change destroyed... one of the greatest civilization in terms of size, the Indus Valley people 3,500 years ago, when they chopped down all of the Pseudomonas host trees to fire the bricks for their 1,000 cities, and then all five million people had to abandoned every one of those cities, when the rain stopped?

So our species pattern in drylands...has been for about 5,500 years, to use it up the perennial native grasslands and native wildflowers, with our farming and grazing, then throw it away. But now that we know how to do Ecological Restoration of those native perennial grasslands (see www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html ) we can get the cover back onto those areas, and get the ecosystems functioning again?

Desertification is exacerbated by climate change, and Vice versa. As the frequency and severity of severe weather events caused by climate change increase, so does the degradation of drylands. Even worse, desertification and climate can form a feedback loop in which vegetation loss is the result of desertification, which reduces carbon sinks and increases gas emissions from rotting plants. The result is an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the continuation of a vicious circle in which climate change and desertification interact with each other.

In Africa alone, a total of more than 650 million people depend on rain-fed agriculture in areas that have already suffered from water scarcity and land degradation, and the situation will get even worse as the climate changes.

If this trend continues, two-thirds of the region's arable land could be lost by 2025 (PSO 2009), and with it the livelihoods of millions of small farmers.

On the other hand, drylands can also play an important role in reducing negative impacts, for example by sequestering carbon in the soil. Although drylands have a relatively low potential for carbon uptake per unit area, the large space they occupy makes them important. This creates both risks and opportunities to mitigate the effects of climate change. Although degraded soils emit greenhouse gases, remediated soils prevent such emissions and even provide storage facilities for greenhouse gases already released into the atmosphere.

Carbon sequestration (uptake, sequestration) is the process by which carbon sinks (both natural and artificial) remove CO2 from the atmosphere, primarily as plant organic matter in soils. Organically cultivated soils can transfer CO2 from the greenhouse gas to the soil, enhancing its productive qualities. Combined with sequestration in soils that are not used in agriculture, the potential of land to sequester carbon and act as a sink for greenhouse gases is unparalleled.

The earth's ability to absorb and literally "inhale" excess CO2 can further increase its value. In turn, CO2 enriches the soil, giving life to trees and vegetation, which in turn create more carbon sinks. In areas where the soil is depleted, this carbon sequestration process literally doesn't work.

Факты о засушливых землях

• Общее количество людей в мире, которые проживают на засушливых землях (за исключением гипераридных территорий, т. е. пустынь), составляет 2 миллиарда человек. Таким образом, на засушливых землях сегодня проживает каждый третий человек в мире.

• Засушливые земли кормят до 50 % крупного скота.

• Большая часть населения жителей планеты, проживающих на засушливых территориях, приходится на развивающиеся страны.

• Засушливые земли хранят 46 % всех запасов углерода на планете.

• На засушливые земли приходится 44 % всех культивируемых площадей.

• Виды растений-эндемиков, чей ареал ограничен засушливыми землями, составляют до 30 % всех растений, культивируемых сегодня.

• Самые большие территории засушливых земель находятся в Австралии, Китае, России, США и Казахстане.

• Минимум 99% площади шести стран (Ботсвана, Буркина-Фасо, Ирак, Казахстан, Молдова и Туркменистан) классифицируются как засушливые земли.

Facts about drylands

• The total number of people in the world who live in drylands (excluding hyperarid areas, i.e. deserts) is 2 billion. Thus, every third person in the world lives in drylands today.

• Drylands feed up to 50 % of cattle.

• The majority of the world's population living in arid areas is in developing countries.

• Drylands store 46 % of the planet's total carbon reserves.

• Drylands account for 44 % of all cultivated land.

• Endemic plant species whose range is limited to arid lands account for up to 30 % of all plants cultivated today.

• The largest drylands are located in Australia, China, Russia, the United States, and Kazakhstan.

• At least 99% of the area of six countries (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Turkmenistan) is classified as dry land.

What can we do?

Combating desertification and promoting sustainable development are closely linked by the social and economic importance of natural resources and agriculture. As you know, if people live in poverty, they are forced to overexploit the land.

As with many other environmental challenges, it is more financially expedient to stop causing harm than to solve the problems that arise. When desertification becomes a reality, correcting its impact becomes a long and expensive process. Despite the severity of soil degradation, the process can be reversed. The trend can be reversed by applying, for example, good cultivation practices. To maintain soil productivity, it is necessary to apply environmentally sound and long-term practices.

The approach is aimed at:

* technologies for sustainable land management, including adaptation;

• building capacity and awareness at various levels;

* monitoring and assessment / research of desertification, droughts and land degradation, as well as sustainable land management;

* knowledge management and decision support tools;

• political, legal and organizational structure;

* funding and resource mobilization;

* participation, collaboration and teamwork (joining forces).

IMPROVING THE RESILIENCE OF THE POPULATION

One priceless way to slow down the process of desertification is to increase the protection of people by providing alternative habitats and strengthening their resilience. There are several ways to do this.

Where this is possible, it is vital to prevent soil degradation, where this is not possible-you should think about restoration and sanitation. Putting environmentally sound land management at the forefront, managing drought risks, and analyzing the project, implementation, and monitoring of biodiversity adaptation at the local, national, and regional levels are clearly key factors in trying to slow down the process of desertification. Adaptation to climate change will need to find a coherent way to address issues of reducing poverty and vulnerability to changing conditions.

Insurance schemes for smallholders could give farmers relative security, so Ethiopia and Kenya have now launched pilot projects that offer farmers insurance against crop failures. The ultimate goal is to provide the population with a universal insurance program. However, at the moment, only a few people benefit from this scheme. In addition, land reform (in which Kenya is again making progress) can play a very important role in increasing people's ability to cope with problems, including by gaining confidence in land ownership. The project to develop lease relations in the forestry sector of Nepal has also produced valuable results.

Supporting evidence-based agriculture is certainly important, as it is a way to help farmers take advantage of modern development and best practices developed elsewhere. Rainwater harvesting, a variety of drought-tolerant crops, agroforestry, and efficient energy use contribute to environmentally sound land management and improved ways to manage drought risks. Although this may seem too obvious to require mention, we should emphasize that the exchange of research and information on the factors that contribute to desertification and on effective ways to combat it, i.e. the principles and practices that actually lead to change, should not be neglected.

Improving recovery capabilities also means learning to understand and respond to the needs of the natural world, recognizing the integrity of biological diversity and ecosystems, conducting and participating in environmental impact assessments, and adhering to the principles of sustainable use.

It is established that arid territories and territories under the threat of desertification are overpopulated, therefore, they cannot meet the needs of people and livestock. One of the key factors in reducing the population's dependence on these lands is the creation of jobs in other sectors that are not related to land cultivation, or in pastures and forests.

In addition to these methods, you can do many other things, for example, develop a partnership for the sake of stable investments. This includes:

* strengthening organizational structures at the local level;

• government empowerment and capacity-building; and

* targeting women and youth.

ОПТИМИЗАЦИЯ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ЗЕМЕЛЬНЫМИ РЕСУРСАМИ

Чтобы бороться с опустыниванием, необходимо восстанавливать и удобрять земли. Чтобы растения могли расти, почва должна содержать питательные вещества, такие как азот, фосфор, кальций, магний и т. д. Если почва потеряла все или часть питательных веществ, и, возможно, аккумулировала токсические элементы, такие как соль, она деградирует и ее продуктивность, как следствие, снижается.

Интенсивное сельское хозяйство – один из основных факторов, которые ведут к деградации почв, и когда это случается, необходимо восстановить плодородность земель, используя искусственные удобрения или натуральный компост. Почва, регенерированная с помощью добавления органического вещества, сможет дать больше урожая. Реструктуризация земель потенциально очень эффективный и экологически безопасный способ сохранения плодородия почвы.

Также существует культурный аспект, связанный с управлением земельными ресурсами и проблемой чрезмерного использования пастбищ. Возможны трудности, связанные с тем, чтобы убедить местных фермеров принять идею предоставления земле времени для восстановления и идею сокращения поголовья стад. Во многих странах количество скота – источник гордости и славы владельца, его семьи или клана. Возможное решение – оптимизация технологий культивирования сельскохозяйственных культур на возделываемых территориях, высвобождение земель для создания пастбищ, что приведет к снижению интенсивной эксплуатации пастбищ и, как следствие, деградации почвы.

ДИВЕРСИФИКАЦИЯ ПРОИЗВОДСТВА

Диверсификация производства растительных культур и животных, позволяет лучше использовать земельные ресурсы и предотвратить перепроизводство одного вида скота или культуры растений. Участок земли может на протяжении длительных периодов выдерживать выращивание различных растений и животных, поскольку их пищевые потребности разнятся, а ресурсы почвы, которыми они пользуются, являются сопряженными и неконкурентными. Смешанное хозяйство снижает риск потери сельскохозяйственной продукции в случае стихийного бедствия и некоторые методы производства, безусловно, лучше других адаптированы для борьбы с засухой.

Каждый вид растений имеет индивидуальные потребности в питательных веществах. Кукуруза, например, истощает землю намного быстрее, чем другие культуры. Во многих случаях следует избегать продолжительного монокультурного хозяйствования на одном участке земли. Для восстановления плодородия почвы следует проводить ротацию производимых культур.

ВОССТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ПОЧВЫ

Деградацию почвы можно остановить и обратить. Для восстановления деградированной почвы, следует улучшить технологии культивирования за счет стабилизации почвы и параллельного насыщения ее органическими веществами, а также смены типа выращиваемых культур. Даже малейшие горизонты воды можно использовать для ирригации и превращения непроизводительной почвы в производительную. Также, важно бороться с явной засоленностью почв с помощью применения наиболее эффективных систем ирригации. Для этого необходимо удалять любой излишек воды, контролировать изменения уровня грунтовых вод и засоленности грунтов в проблемных районах, осушать и орошать почву, а также высаживать деревья, чьи корни предупреждают выщелачивание почвы. Деревья действуют как защитная полоса, и обеспечивают дополнительные ресурсы, такие как дрова, листва и фрукты.

Опыт показывает, что восстановление лесонасаждений – это эффективный способ восстановления почвы. Оно требует создания питательных веществ для обеспечения ими молодых саженцев локальных видов растений, которые специально отобраны за их быстрый рост и возможности адаптации в трудных климатических условиях. Восстановление через высадку кустарника или высев определенных культур также является эффективным средством восстановления земель пастбищ. Восстановление лесонасаждений – достаточно продолжительный проект, поскольку деревья растут медленно. К счастью, продолжительный жизненный цикл деревьев означает, что инвестиции в них, как правило, рентабельны.

Деревья выполняют несколько функций:

• они стабилизируют почвенные частицы и предотвращают водную и ветровую эрозию;

• действуют как препятствия для ветра, защищая таким образом урожай;

• повышают плодородность почвы, поскольку многие деревья производят азот, который удобряет почву и увеличивает ее производительность;

• облегчают проникание воды в грунт во время дождя и способствуют сохранению влажности в течение продолжительных периодов времени;

• дают тень для животных и людей;

• поставляют питательные вещества животным, поскольку за счет фруктовых деревьев диверсифицируют источники питания скота, используя листву для кормления; и

• являются источниками древесного топлива и строительного материала.

EROSION CONTROL

Erosion control is of great importance to prevent desertification or to restore productivity of damaged soils. A number of simple means of mechanization soften the impact of wind and prevent the movement of sand and dust.

These include:

• construction of fences or barriers made of native plant species, intertwining palm trees, planting hedges or installing metal sheets around villages and agricultural land;

* planting vegetation whose roots protect and strengthen the soil;

* prohibition of grazing to protect landings.

LACK OF WATER

The availability of water affects the life of the population, as well as the development of certain agricultural practices. In drylands, more than anywhere else, water availability is a crucial factor. These areas are highly volatile and surface water, such as rivers and lakes, usually disappears fairly quickly. Water scarcity and poor quality threaten public health, food and energy production, and the regional economy. It is estimated that 40 % of the world's population suffers from water scarcity. In dry areas, almost all water resources are used. They are often threatened by pollution, which can contribute to the spread of many diseases.

While irrigation can improve food production, its inefficient use can be risky, especially given salinization. For example, about 10 % of the world's irrigated land has been damaged by salinization, which has become a threat to food security. The accumulation of salts in the soil reduces the yield and can harm so much that its recovery will be economically unprofitable. Salinization reduces the area of irrigated land in the world by 1-2 % annually, most strongly affecting arid and semi-arid regions.

Land degradation in drylands can have a direct impact on the water cycle. If there is little precipitation, a drought occurs: groundwater reserves are not replenished, water sources are depleted, wells dry up, plants and animals die, and people are forced to migrate to more favorable regions. Conversely, during periods of heavy rain, flooding kills people and animals, especially in regions where vegetation is reduced or completely destroyed. Heavy rains cause significant losses of soil, which is washed away by the rains, and when the earth dries again, a hard crust forms on the surface, which makes it water-tight and reduces water seepage.

ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ МИГРАЦИЯ

Опустынивание представляет собой глобальную проблему, угрожающую развитию, поскольку приводит к бегству из пострадавших регионов: когда возделывание земли становится нерентабельным, люди вынуждены переселяться внутри страны или мигрировать за ее пределы. Это может еще больше накалить ситуацию и привести к социальной и политической напряженности и конфликтам. Из-за связи с миграцией, опустынивание является поистине глобальной проблемой, так же, как и изменение климата или сокращение биологического разнообразия.

В некоторых странах, деградация почвы привела к массовой внутренней миграции, заставляя целые деревни покидать свои фермы и переезжать в перенаселенные города. Пятьдесят миллионов человек находятся под угрозой переселения в ближайшие десять лет, если опустынивание не будет остановлено (Университет ООН 2007). Проведение политики устойчивого управления земельными и водными ресурсами будет способствовать преодолению этих все более сложных трудностей.

Проблемы также возникают в городах и в сельских районах, не охваченных деградацией почвы, но вынужденных принимать новых мигрантов. Опустынивание может вынудить целые общины мигрировать в города или регионы, где условия выживания изначально более перспективны, но становятся все труднее и угрожают социальной стабильности и культурной самобытности. Временные жилища, антисанитарные и незаконные, иногда становятся источниками этнических или религиозных конфликтов. Опустынивание также приводит к политической нестабильности и уже сыграло свою роль в разжигании некоторых вооруженных конфликтов в засушливых районах.

ERADICATION OF POVERTY

Most people who are directly affected by desertification live below the poverty line and do not have full access to fresh water.

Poverty forces people to overexploit the remaining natural resources, starting a vicious cycle of soil degradation and even greater poverty. Poverty thus becomes both a cause and a consequence of desertification. Land degradation also weakens populations and institutions, making them even more vulnerable to global economic factors. For example, a deficit in tax revenues resulting from low productivity affects the ability of States to repay their external debt and develop national socio-economic programs.

Desertification and prolonged drought reduce national food production and increase the need to consume foreign products. Moreover, food aid may eventually reduce local agricultural production, especially if it becomes more expensive to produce than to resort to imported products that are distributed free of charge by the international community.

While both the rich and the poor suffer during disasters caused by desertification, land degradation and droughts, the poor suffer the most because their ability to cope with and recover from difficulties depends on access to assets such as land and their ability to mobilize resources. For example, in the case of a drought, rich people, groups or communities can invest their assets in other areas and meet short-term needs, while the poor cannot.

PREVENTING DEFORESTATION

Deforestation and desertification negatively affect agricultural productivity, human and livestock health, and economic activities such as ecotourism. Forests and deciduous cover combat soil degradation and desertification by stabilizing soils, reducing water and wind erosion, and preserving soil nutrients. The environmentally sound use of forest ecosystem products and services and the development of agroforestry systems can thus contribute to reducing poverty by making poor farmers less vulnerable to the effects of land degradation. Desertification and associated loss of vegetation cover cause a reduction in biological diversity and contribute to climate change by reducing carbon sequestration.

An important confirmation of the fact that deforestation causes desertification is a sharp change in the microclimate in places where vegetation is disturbed. For example, when shrubs and trees are cut down, the midday sun falls directly on previously shaded soil; the soil becomes warmer and drier, and the organisms that live on it, or in it, will leave this area to escape the unusual heat. Organic waste on the surface – fallen leaves and branches, for example, will be oxidized faster, and carbon dioxide will be carried away. There will be only a small supply of humus in the soil.

The challenge of developing drylands and improving the well-being of the people who depend on them is vast and complex. The forest plays an important role in any strategic plan to combat it:

• it plays a critical role in maintaining soil and water as a base for food production due to protective plantings, forest belts, and dispersed trees;

* promotes animal husbandry through forest pasture systems, and especially through the creation of forage stocks or deposits in the form of forage trees or shrubs that alleviate food shortages during droughts;

* produces firewood, charcoal and other forest products on the forest lands of a rural community or individual farm;

* promotes rural development and employment through artisanal industries based on raw materials from wild plants and animals, as well as through the development of wildlife-based tourism; and

* provides food from wild animals and plants in the form of fruits, leaves, roots and mushrooms.

Interesting...Following keenly

Hi Antonio! I am very interested in this topic, thank you for starting the thread. From an urban perspective: In a study in the Phoenix, AZ region (semi-arid desert), we found that attitudes from residents were largely positive. However, there's a marked inequality in the city throughout spatial and social groups, where some people have access to the amenities that the desert ecoregion provides, whereas other people (especially those without Central AC) don't have the same access to recreational open space but instead more acutely feel the risks posed, such as extreme heat.

Article Social–Spatial Analyses of Attitudes toward the Desert in a ...

I actually wrote an article about this (with co-author Prof. Daniel Orenstein) that you can easily use as a source. It addresses both why people don't think that the desert is as valuable as other ecosystems AND why it actually has much more than those people realize, especially in terms of cultural ecosystem services. It is open access so you can use this link to get to the entire article, and let me know if you have further questions:

Article The 'desert experience': Evaluating the cultural ecosystem s...

Maybe at least three answers: 1.) Their resource base is limited 2.) The people managing them currently are not the indigenous people, even in Europe. We tend to forget that Europe was invaded by people from the Caucus Mountains 4500-6500 years ago on horseback, and so severely changed everyone's language that only the Basque and Laplanders escaped.

Then, domesticated grazing animals were introduced...and that changed many parts of southern Europe from a perennial grassland with wildflowers and diversity, to a oak savannah desert. For example, when cattle that were domesticated about 10,500 years ago in Central Turkey arrived, then domesticated grain crops also arrived from the Middle East and the native grasslands replanted with those crops.

3.) You can see the spread of the domesticated Middle-eastern grazing animal and spread of the planting of domesticated Middle-eastern grain crop, creating "drylands" and converting grasslands into deserts all across the Northern hemisphere, from Morocco to the Gobi desert, and everywhere in between. Once the grazing-grain destruction begin, the ecosystem is destroyed, and has lost 99% of its value after that. I did a painting #62 about those changes that grazing and farming did, with the title---

""SPATIAL EXTINCTION of 22 plant families native to Arabia, exterminated by the domesticated cattle and camels beginning about 7,000 years ago, since they were domesticated and moved into Arabia, and ate the Pseudomonas-host plants, causing the monsoon moisture to stop producing regular rain clouds, and when the animals grazed the land to dust, that created the Pakistan-Arabia Dust Cloud to form, which further eliminates the formation of rain clouds, and the spatial extinction occurred in the following families-Bean, Borage, Buckwheat, Caper, Cucumber, Dogbane, Goosefoot, Grass, Iris, Lily, Mallow, Milkweed, Mint, Morning glory, Mustard, Nightshade, Parsley, Poppy, Rose, Sedge, and Sunflower-The spatial extinction may have occurred all over Arabia in only a few hundred years about 5,500 years ago, but the painting extends that time frame, and the new ecological concept of "spatial extinction" does not mean that individual species are extinct, but they are extinct over large areas of their original ranges, and it is hoped that this spatial extinction trajectory is reversed and Ecological Restoration begins."