Desertification causes climate consequences, economic losses, mass migration, hunger, and poverty. Turns their impacts.

3.IMPACTS OF DESERTIFICATION Desertification has severe financial and societal consequences including direct economic losses, increased health and safety hazards, and decreased agricultural productivity. 3.1. Environmental Impacts The direct physical consequences of desertification may include an increased frequency of sand and dust storms and increased flooding due to inadequate drainage or poor irrigation practices. This can contribute to the removal of topsoil and vital soil nutrients needed for food production, and bring about a loss of vegetation cover which would otherwise have assisted with the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for plant photosynthesis. With the expansion of desertified land, large dust storms were observed more frequently in China. In the 1960s eight large dust-storms were observed, while 20 in 1990s. In March 2002 the most violent dust-storm observed since the 1990s affected over 1.1 million km2 of land and 130 million people (Huang and Siegert, 2006), which was considered to be relevant to the rapid desertification caused by human activities and climate change in China (Ye et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2004b). Desertification causes a drop in biological productivity of land which to a decline in economic productivity. It adversely affects the lives of wild species, domestic animals, agricultural crops and people. Desertification can also initiate regional shifts in climate which may enhance climate changes due to greenhouse gas emissions. 6 Habes A. Ghrefat 3.2. Economic Impacts Land degradation is not merely an environmental issue, but has social and economic implications as well (Li, 1998). The World Bank estimates that at the global level, the annual income foregone in the areas affected by desertification amounts to US$ 42 billion each year, while the annual cost of fighting land degradation would cost only US$ 2.4 billion a year. In China, desertification causes a direct economic loss estimated between US$ 2–3 billion annually, while the associated indirect loss is 2–3 times more (Zha and Gao, 1997). In some developing countries, the loss caused by land degradation occupies 1–17% of the gross national product. In some tropical regions, the rate has reached 10%. 3.3. Poverty and Mass Migration Desertification brings hunger and poverty. People living in areas threatened by desertification are forced to move elsewhere to find other means of livelihood. Mass migration is a major consequence of desertification. From 1997 to 2020, some 60 million people are expected to move from the desertified areas in Sub-Saharan Africa towards Northern Africa and Europe.