DO HUMANS CAUSE DESERTS? AN OLD PROBLEM THROUGH THE LENS OF A NEW FRAMEWORK: THE DAHLEM DESERTIFICATION PARADIGM

Desertification is a term associated with land degradation in drylands, and is presumed to result in a reduction in the biological and, hence, economic potential of the land to support human populations, livestock, and wild herbivores. However, others vigorously contest such an interpretation and the debate goes on. What exactly is desertification? Are 17 % or 70 % of global drylands desertified? There is an urgent need to lessen uncertainties that paralyze action, and for new thinking beyond regional and disciplinary concerns. Towards this end, we present the Dahlem Desertification Paradigm (DDP), a new, interdisciplinary framework for tackling the complex issues of desertification developed at the 88th Dahlem workshop, An Integrated Assessment of the Ecological, Meteorological and Human Dimensions of Global Desertification. At the core of the DDP is the recognition that desertification cannot be framed in terms of single measures alone but must simultaneously involve both biophysical and socio-economic factors. These factors, together with their implications for action, are determinable because a limited number of slow variables determine the dynamics of linked biophysical/socio-economic systems at different scales. The DDP observes how important it is to keep the evolution of each subsystem in balance with that of others through the development of appropriate local environmental knowledge, and cuts through confusion using a well-structured approach that relates defined types of degradation at finer scales t