The World Environment Day is being observed on June 5 with the theme of 'Don`t Desert Drylands'. The year 2006 has already been declared as International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
Researchers say nearly 40 percent of the Earth's surface and 20 percent of the world's population are found in regions that are under threat of desertification, which can result in the loss of grass and degradation of soil as grasslands are converted into woody-plant-dominated landscapes.
The total area of Pakistan is 179.6 million hectares of which 70 million hectares are considered to be arid and semi arid. Approximately 11 million hectares of these lands are desert while total irrigated area of the country is about 16 million hectares. And the lowest percentage of area under forest cover.
Pakistan's major environmental concerns are land degradation due to urbanisation, droughts, floods, salinity, seawater intrusion as well as deforestation, biodiversity loss, mono-cropping and groundwater depletion.
Sindh and Balochistan also fall under the dryland category and are, in particular, vulnerable to the mounting threat of desertification from a variety of human activities.
Nearly 60 percent of Pakistan area consists of rangelands that receive less than 200 mm of rainfall annually, and are considered arid. They support 93.5 millions heads of livestock and a very large number of pastoral people.
However, continuous shortage of fodder and water due to the recent drought has caused heavy losses to livestock and very adversely communities.
Besides the drought conditions in the arid rangelands and low availability of water in the Indus River system has made the situation even worse. Overgrazing has significantly brought down the productivity of rangelands.
The arid coastal strips and mangroves areas are under increased environmental stress from reduced fresh water flows, sewage and industrial pollution and over exploitation of other natural resources. Substantial decline in floodwater in Sindh has led to rapid sea intrusion in the delta region, raising salinity levels in underground water and spurring cattle migration to irrigated areas, it is reported.
According to a websites, "God created lands filled with water as a place for man to live; and the desert so that he can discover his soul."
"Often the UN-designated "years" are half over before anyone is made aware that they are so designated unless there are non-governmental organisations already working on the issue and who use the year to highlight their concern.
"Deserts have a negative and a positive aspect. The negative aspect is "desertification" - the word linked to deserts for the UN year. The deserts are growing in size. "Desertification on the edges of the deserts degrade vulnerable soils and habitat. There is a loss of diversity of plants and wildlife. There is a dangerous struggle for life among the peoples living on the deserts' edge - a struggle for land, water, and grazing rights.
"World attention has been slowly drawn to Africa and the real possibilities of famine in West and East Africa in this year of deserts -2006.
"Niger and Mali and areas of Senegal and Chad in the Sahel belt are facing the consequences of serious drought as are northern parts of Kenya, Somalia. The resources of the UN's World Food Programme are inadequate, both in terms of funding for transportation and in grain stocks.
"The most dramatic case is that of Darfur, Sudan which partakes of the Sahel drought but which also faces a war in which the conflicts between pastoralists and settled agriculturalists have become politicised. It is estimated that 200,000 people have been killed since the start of the war late in 2003. Some two and a half million people have been uprooted. The agricultural infrastructure of homes, barns and wells have been deliberately destroyed. It will be difficult and costly to repair this destruction. There is increasing danger that the war will spread to Chad, which has a long history of instability.
"The Darfur conflict highlights the need for a broader approach to the analysis and interpretation of active and potential armed conflicts in the Sahel region. This analysis needs to take into consideration the impact of environmental scarcity and climate variation in complex situations".
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