Desertification: Reflections on the Mirage

Abstract

This chapter concludes the book with a reflection on its key messages. Prior chapters add up to a strong denunciation of the simplistic but far reaching notion of desertification as promulgated over the past century. It continues to be enlisted to support policies that disempower dryland peoples around the world. There remains a question, though, of how much the misconceived notion of desertification drove these outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, as opposed to colo- nization and then globalization being the underlying forces which simply found desertification a convenient crutch for actions that would have happened regardless. Today, we have a better understanding of mobility, equilibrium (and other) dynamics, the effectiveness and limitations of local institutions, the diversity of dryland systems, and accelerating global change. These combine to provide a set of more nuanced recommendations for the future. It still matters to understand cau- sation, however, as these recommendations themselves could be undermined by the extraordinary power of narrative and narrative of power. A new and appealing narrative of drylands is needed, that is strong enough to rebut (or evade) the apparent inevitability of centralized power dynamics, and to respond to the inex- orable realities of global change.