New Book Urges Swift Action on Desertification

By Toye Olori

Ahowa, Burkina Faso shocked Newton Jibunoh on his second trip back there. Where once there were towns and villages, there were now only sand dunes. People he had met on his first trip there 37 years ago had disappeared, killed or displaced by the encroaching desert.

Jibunoh’s second car trip from Lagos to London and back in 2000 has resulted in a book which he hopes will jolt the world into realising the very real danger of desertification. ‘Me, My Desert and I’, launched here earlier this week to take advantage of the international spotlight on sustainable development, tells the story of the swift, implacable march of the desert across Africa’s semi-arid lands and degraded farmlands.

“Unless something is done quickly to curb (the desert’s) expansion, communities which co-existed alongside its borders for centuries will be lost for ever as its residents pack up their belongings for good and flee the approaching sand,’’ the Nigerian environmentalist wrote in his book.

Jibunoh’s book says 73 percent of Africa’s agricultural dry land is severely and moderately degraded. Desertification has already consumed 3.6 billion hectares or 70 percent of the world’s dry land, which just happens to be a quarter of the earth’s total land surface, he says.

“I begin to wonder how we expect to alleviate poverty if we do not address the issue of land management and food production. When you look at the population drift, you will find the people of the desert have been moving with their cattle, leaving the desert as it is consuming their land and their lives.”

Desertification poses one of the greatest threats to global society today, Jibunoh continued. The situation is further complicated because the desert respects no boundaries and continues to claim lives because no central strategy exists.

“We are right in the middle of nowhere as far as I am concerned because the talk of the last ten years, the sciences of the last ten years, without something on the ground to combat the threat of this to mankind and to the environment, is nothing. That worries me. Is it going to be another ten years before we assemble again to begin to approach the issue of desertification?’’ he asked.

The 64-year-old Jibunoh, however, is not waiting around for governments to tackle desertification. He has launched his own non governmental organisation to raise awareness of the issue in urban areas. His organisation, the Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE), plans to host a tree-planting competition in schools, colleges and universities in countries bordering the Sahara Desert. Prizes will include text books and computers, he says.

“The idea is that we will also be instilling in the students the stark realities of what the desert is likely to do not only to our generation, but to theirs,” Jubunoh said.