Desertification in developed countries: in search of the silver bullet

Desertification, or dryland degradation, occurs in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid regions as a result of human mismanagement of agricultural and pastoral resources, coupled with the effects of climatic and other natural stresses on the environment. The causes of dryland degradation in semi-arid and arid rangelands in South Africa are rooted in the past but we should avoid, at all reasonable cost, the possibility of taking them into the future.