[ noun ] the gradual transformation of habitable land into desert; is usually caused by climate change or by destructive use of the land <noun.process> the dust storms in Korea are the result of rapid desertification in China
At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, from which the new convention emerged during follow-up negotiations, climatic variation was added to human activities as a cause of desertification.
The agricultural sector must also contribute to tackling problems such as water pollution, soil erosion and desertification.
"As Third World nations like Brazil continue to burn, harvest and plow under the forests for short-term human and corporate gain, the Earth faces increasing danger from global greenhouse warming and desertification," it said.
The organization has invested more than $3 billion to combat desertification and finance health, agriculture and other development projects.
"The territorial imperative takes forms in Europe that are unfamiliar to Americans," he said. "Europeans are concerned with the ecological consequences of depopulation, what they call desertification.