{"id":25967,"date":"2025-09-03T12:32:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelifestaybetter.com\/?p=25967"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:43:08","slug":"drought-and-desertification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelifestaybetter.com\/es\/drought-and-desertification\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought and Desertification"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lamentamos que esta p\u00e1gina no est\u00e9 disponible actualmente en espa\u00f1ol.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Drought and desertification
What do they mean and what we can do?
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By Billy Bishop, 11 September 2025<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In this article, Travelife for Accommodation <\/a><\/span>explores why understanding drought and desertification is essential to safeguarding ecosystems, supporting communities, and promoting sustainable land use.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tourism and accommodation are vital to local economies, especially in regions facing environmental stress. Yet the sector\u2019s reliance on land and water can contribute to drought and desertification if not managed responsibly. High water consumption, land conversion, and deforestation linked to tourism development can strain ecosystems already vulnerable to climate change. By adopting sustainable land and water practices, engaging local communities, and supporting fair livelihoods, tourism can become a key player in mitigating these challenges and promoting long-term resilience.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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What does drought and desertification mean?<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Drought and desertification are two processes that result in disastrous impacts on people and biodiversity. But what actually are they?<\/p>\n

Desertification<\/strong> is predominantly a human-induced issue that refers to the degradation of land in the dryland areas of the world. Land that was once fertile becomes degraded, resulting in soil erosion, sterility and a loss of biodiversity. As a result of this, the land becomes useless to people, livestock and wildlife. The land therefore loses its cultural, economic and environmental value alongside its biological diversity.<\/p>\n

Desertification is not the expansion of existing deserts, instead it is the transformation of productive and fertile land into a desert.<\/p>\n

The causes of desertification can be split into land management and climate related causes. Land management causes include overgrazing, deforestation, poor agricultural practice, removal of vegetation and overexploitation. The land management causes usually exist because of population growth, poverty and economic growth. Climate related causes include climate change and drought.<\/p>\n

According to the UNCCD<\/a>, approximately one million square kilometres of productive land are degraded annually\u2014equivalent to the size of Egypt. Desertification, land degradation, and drought may displace up to 135 million people by 2045.<\/p>\n

Drought<\/strong> in contrast, is a lack of precipitation over a period of time that subsequently leads to a water shortage. Drought is a naturally occurring issue, which unsurprisingly, is exacerbated by climate change that allows for drier, longer and hotter periods without rainfall.<\/p>\n

There are both natural and human causes of drought. Unusual weather patterns are the natural cause of drought, El Ni\u00f1o and La Ni\u00f1a<\/a> are just two weather patterns that are associated as such. These patterns are caused by a change in the surface temperature on the Pacific Ocean and subsequently cause drought; La Ni\u00f1a typically brings wetter conditions to Southeast Asia and Australia, while El Ni\u00f1o is more likely to cause droughts in those regions. In contrast, La Ni\u00f1a can lead to droughts in parts of East Africa and Southwest Asia. Of course, these processes are worsened by climate change but are a natural phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Human causes of drought include climate change, deforestation and increased water usage. Climate change brings global warming, which exposes places to warmer than normal temperatures for longer periods which can result in a drought. Deforestation is a cause because forests are contributors to rainfall and without these forests reduce the clouds that form to bring rainfall. Finally, increased water usage causes and worsens droughts, for example, dams prevent the natural flow of water and can severely impact regions downstream when the flow of water is restricted.<\/p>\n

Importantly, classifying a drought depends on the location. For example, some places are drier than others under normal circumstances, there is no set limit for what classifies as a drought and it is entirely dependent on the \u2018normal\u2019 or \u2018average\u2019 circumstances.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The impact of drought and desertification on people<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Despite drought and desertification being different processes, they impact people in a similar way.<\/p>\n

Loss of biodiversity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biodiversity loss is a result of both issues. A lack of rainfall results in less hospitable places, where it is harder for species to survive. Losing one species in an ecosystem can have dramatic impacts on the rest of the ecosystem too. For desertification, it causes biodiversity loss through the loss of vegetation, plants, and sources of food for wildlife.<\/p>\n

Food insecurity<\/strong><\/p>\n

As desertification and drought increase, the availability of land to grow crops on and their success in growing, decreases. This exposes the growers to issues by reducing their income and food availability and it will impact the global market by decreasing food availability.<\/p>\n

Flooding<\/strong><\/p>\n

Droughts dry the soil out so much so that it cannot absorb the rain. In the same way, desertification results in soil becoming dry and again unable to absorb rain. When there are periods of sudden heavy rain on the dry ground, it cannot be absorbed quick enough resulting in water running down slopes or pooling on the ground, creating a flash flood.<\/p>\n

Health issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Droughts leave poor quality drinking water, negatively affect air quality and provide habitats for animals to spread disease. The limited drinking water available may become stagnant and grow harmful bacteria; drought dust can affect people\u2019s respiratory systems and wildlife and humans become closer in the search for water which increases the chance of disease hopping between animals and humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dust storms <\/strong><\/p>\n

Both drought and desertification dry out the land, increasing vulnerability to dust storms. In fact, the UN has declared 2025\u20132034 the ‘Decade on Combating Sand and Dust Storms’<\/a>, recognising their growing impact on health, agriculture, and infrastructure. \u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What can we do? <\/span><\/h4><\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Preventing these issues is best, but desertification and drought is happening on a never before seen scale and there are places where prevention is too late.<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Use less water<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Drought depletes reservoirs, rivers and aquifers which we rely on for drinking water. Desertification can affect water quality and prevents water absorption, therefore reducing the availability of water. Using less water in whatever way is something we can all do; reduce your water flow, harvest grey-water and taking shorter showers are just some water saving methods. \u00a0While water conservation alone cannot solve drought or desertification, it plays a vital role in reducing stress on water systems and enhancing community resilience.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Plant drought tolerant<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Choose plants that need less water and will survive during periods of drought to help reduce your water usage whilst still benefiting from your planting displays.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Reforestation<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Trees retain water, enrich the soil and boost rainfall, therefore planting trees and reforesting can help to combat both drought and desertification.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Provide education<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Communities need to be given the resources and education to prevent desertification, teaching communities about sustainable land management practices<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Helpful organisations and resources <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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UNCCD Factsheet 2025 | Latest desertification stats and impacts<\/a><\/p>\n

FAO La Ni\u00f1a Update 2025 | Regional drought effects of La Ni\u00f1a<\/a><\/p>\n

UNCCD SDS Decade Announcement | UN\u2019s global initiative on dust storms<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Browse other articles<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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