Overall, it could be said that attention to population dimensions is widespread but not deep. Phenomena other than population growth are rarely mentioned, despite e.g. the relevance of population distribution, migration and urbanization for natural resource use and reciprocal impacts of population and the environment.

On the policy side, only four countries see some value in slowing population growth to facilitate population-environment adjustments. Likewise, few countries seem to perceive qualitative dimensions such as the relationship between a key group like women and the environment (to the management of which they largely contribute), or to appreciate the necessity to invest in environmental education in order to start transforming the population's attitude and practices. Certainly some advocacy work is called for in these areas.

3.2 Types of degradation

Soil erosion under the action of water (rain, streams and floods) is the main form of land degradation in seven of the eight countries reviewed. Wind erosion is dominant only in Chad.^6/

Chemical degradation, which accounts for 12 percent only of soil degradation at the global level, has a much higher impact in some of the countries reviewed here--Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Rwanda in particular. This class of problems includes: salinization; the loss of soil fertility (nutrients, organic matter), through depletion from cultivating poor or mediocre soils without sufficient fertilization or through erosion; and pollution.

Physical degradation has very little incidence in this sub-region, even under the low global average of 5 percent of degraded areas worldwide. It consists mainly of soil compaction and the waterlogging of irrigated areas.

	Level of degradation (%)				Types of degradation (%)				Causes of degradation (%)
	Total	Light	Moderate	Strong	Water erosion	Wind erosion	Chemical degradation	Physical degradation	Defores- tation	Overexp. wood cover	Over- grazing	Agricultural activities
Sierra Leone	18	3	4	-	5	-	95	-	47	-	-	53
Liberia	5	1	3	-	-	-	100	-	62	-	-	38
Ghana	11	2	5	4	88	-	12	-	34	5	18	42
Nigeria	29	2	10	17	80	4	8	8	7	25	23	45
Chad	20	13	6	-	8	81	3	8	4	30	62	3
Central African Rep.	3	1	1	-	85	1	9	4	47	19	26	8
Uganda	21	1	13	7	74	-	26	-	13	-	45	42
Rwanda	69	5	65	-	22	-	78	-	3	-	-	97
Burundi	70	3	67	-	20	-	80	-	2	-	-	98
Tanzania	12	5	5	2	81	-	13	6	23	-	38	39
Kenya	15	5	5	5	85	15	-	-	15	-	58	26
Ethiopia + Eritrea	25	6	8	11	74	26	-	-	36	-	50	14

N.B. Totals may not tally due to rounding.
- = zero or negligible

3.3 Causes of degradation and population factors

If natural hazards are left aside, the causes of land degradation can be divided into direct and underlying causes. Direct causes are inappropriate land use and unsuitable land management practices, e.g. the cultivation of steep slopes without soil conservation measures. Underlying causes are the reasons why these inappropriate practices take place, e.g. the slopes may be cultivated because the landless poor need food, and conservation measures not taken because farmers lack security of tenure.

The GLASOD assessment addressed the direct causes of land degradation for each map unit, recognizing four causes:

• deforestation and removal of natural vegetation;

• over-exploitation of wood cover for domestic use;

• overgrazing;

• agricultural activities.

Deforestation is a cause of degradation when the land that is cleared is steeply sloping or has shallow or easily erodible soils, and when clearance is not followed by good management. It is the dominant cause in only two countries here (Liberia and Central African Republic) and usually does not reach the level of its relative incidence world-wide, where it accounts for 36 percent of total degradation. But it affects most countries to a significant extent.

The role of population dynamics vis-à-vis other factors in deforestation is a much debated issue. In much of the sub-region forest clearance appears to have occurred mostly under the pressure of needs for more cropland and pastures; in addition, forest degradation occurs because of excess livestock grazing in wooded areas as well as collection of wood for human use, especially fuel.

Overcutting of vegetation occurs when people cut forests, woodlands and shrublands--to obtain timber, fuelwood and other products--at a pace exceeding the rate of natural regrowth. This is frequent in semi-arid environments, where fuelwood shortages are often severe. The phenomenon is significant in three countries here (Chad, Nigeria and Central African Republic).

Overgrazing is the grazing of natural pastures at stocking intensities above the livestock carrying capacity; the resulting decrease in the vegetation cover is a leading cause of wind and water erosion. It accounts for 35 percent of the total extent of degradation world-wide. Here it affects eight countries, with a very high relative incidence in Chad, Kenya and Ethiopia/ Eritrea (50 percent or more of the degraded area).

Agricultural activities that can cause land degradation include shifting cultivation without adequate fallow periods, absence of soil conservation measures, cultivation of fragile or marginal lands, unbalanced fertilizer use, and faulty planning or management of irrigation--in other words, land mismanagement in general. At the global level they account for 28 percent of the total land degradation. In this sub-region they are a prominent factor in almost all countries (the exceptions being Chad, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia/Eritrea) and by far the major factor in Rwanda and Burundi.

The role of population factors in land degradation processes obviously occurs in the context of the underlying causes. Population pressure operates through giving rise to land shortages, and through other mechanisms as well. Improper agricultural practices, for instance, occur only under constraints such as the saturation of good lands under population pressure which leads settlers to cultivate too shallow or too steep soils, plough fallow land before it has recovered its fertility, or attempt to obtain multiple crops by irrigating unsuitable soils.

Let us now consider the respective roles of agriculture, industry and domestic uses of water, as reported in Table 4.

The region is characterized by:

The implication of these patterns is that there still is quite some potential for increases in water demand, as economies diversify and living standards rise. Unless large gains are made in efficient use of irrigation water and conservation or rehabilitation of damaged irrigated areas, the crunch is likely to severely damage economic competitivity in addition to health and the quality of life.

	Domestic	Industry	Agriculture
Sierra Leone	7	4	89
Liberia	27	13	60
Ghana	35	13	52
Nigeria	31	15	54
Chad	16	2	82
Central African Rep.	21	5	74
Uganda	32	8	60
Rwanda	5	2	94
Burundi	36	-	64
Tanzania	9	2	89
Kenya	20	4	76
Ethiopia	11	3	86
Eritrea	..	..	..
AFRICA	7	5	88

Source: World Resources Institute (1996).

Since the countries of this sub-region are widely affected by environmental problems, many of which ascribable at least in part to population factors, there is ample scope for activities along these lines.

A first line of activities, aiming at improving the understanding of processes at work, would consist in retrospective studies, such as:

Next comes a group of activities more practically oriented towards policy formulation. Some (4-6) are geared to establish necessary information bases and current diagnoses; others (7) are more of the "policy study" type in the strict sense, i.e. geared to assess the implications of alternative courses of action or alternative scenarios regarding exogenous variables.

All these activities are meant to produce utilizable results in the policy making context (i.e. the second programme area of the Agenda 21, namely the formulation of integrated environment and development policies taking into account demographic trends and factors). In most if not all cases, their promotion at government level and successful pursuit will require two types of activities:

Finally, it is worth noting that population-environment linkages are, in many settings, an interesting addition to traditional population education themes:

UNFPA support could be considered for some of these activities. UNFPA first stated its interest for studying selected aspects of the population-environment nexus several years ago already, in its Handbook of Policy Guidelines. Following the ICPD, UNFPA undertook to revise its programmatic guidelines. In the population and environment area this task was effectively tackled only in 1997; the outcome is a well-articulated Guidance Note on Population and the Environment, the substance of which is the following.

Consistent with the Agenda 21 framework and the ICPD Programme of Action (United Nations, 1995) UNFPA can support, within its three thematic areas, the following types of population and environment projects:

• under reproductive health, "synergistic interventions" (combining health programme elements with assistance to local development and environmental management), for example in areas where environmental degradation, poverty and population pressures are exacerbating one another;

• under population and development strategies:

Population and development policies and plans should take environmental links and concerns into account. UNFPA can help this process through "studies for incorporating demographic features into policies and plans as well as programmes designed to integrate the direct and induced effects of demographic changes on environment and development programmes".

Policy-oriented research and analysis should bear on "the interaction between demographic trends and factors and sustainable development [and help] identify priority areas for action and develop strategies and programmes to mitigate the adverse impact of environmental change on human populations, and vice versa". Examples of important issues are:

(i) the population dimensions of the food supply system (that is, how many people and with what characteristics depend on a specific sub-system, for example subsistence agriculture vs. foreign trade), and

(ii) the population dimensions of food insecurity and vulnerability assessment (i.e. how many would be affected by this or that type of failure in a given sub-system)".

Since the integration of population and environmental factors cannot be pursued without appropriately trained personnel--particularly in the public sector--capacity building is crucial. UNFPA should "support relevant training in population and the environment for persons from appropriate agencies in the public sector" and "from accredited national, regional and international NGOs".

The need for advocacy is also recognized, for "sustained support for viewing environmental issues in a population context will depend on [the] creation of awareness and the dissemination of understanding of the links between population and environment are important steps in the sustainable development process. UNFPA should "support activities to inform, educate, and communicate on the nature of the issues involved [as well as] actively support community efforts and the production and dissemination of relevant information material".

In view "of the multi-disciplinary nature of many of the issues involved in population and environment linkages"--and of limited resources--international assistance should involve all relevant UN agencies and NGOs. In this context UNFPA will concentrate on the population side of the population-environment linkage, and priority will be given to projects that can be used as immediate inputs into policy making in countries and geographical areas experiencing the most acute population and environmental problems.

Country needs for these various kinds of inputs to country policies should be systematically assessed in the context of programming at the country level. In addition, there would be great value in undertaking country activities, such as those suggested above, in a coordinated manner in groups of countries that share the same issues and therefore can benefit both from one another's experience, both in data collection/analysis and in applying thematic knowledge to policy making.

Regional patterns of land degradation

The extent of the degradation problem and its patterns vary notably among regions:

Table 5 below quantifies the area not affected by degradation or wasteland, as a proportion of total land area, by region:

1/ The data sources for Table 1 are the following. Population size and growth rate: United Nations (1996); urban population percentage and growth rate: United Nations (1997); cropland and forest: FAO (1995) or AGROSTAT data base; water resources: derived from Engelman and LeRoy (1993), assuming no change in country resources. Per caput indices of natural resources availability have been corrected to take into account the sometimes drastic changes in retrospective population estimates that occurred between the United Nations' 1994 and 1996 revisions.

2/ Such reports were presented by all countries covered by the CST except Liberia. "Ethiopia" is the then People's Democratic Republic (PDR), including now independent Eritrea.

3/ The United Nations Conference on Desertification, which popularized this word, defined it as "the reduction or destruction of the land's potential, finally resulting in the appearance of desert conditions" (United Nations, 1977). Although one should use the concept only in reference to processes which have resulted in desert conditions or will shortly and inevitably do so, it is often used in a broader sense. The term "desertification" has other annoying aspects. It gives no information on the nature of the degradation, hence on possible corrective actions. It misstates the problems: "the concept of expanding deserts and advancing sand dunes has become the dominant image in the public's eye rather than [...] less visible and much more serious problems" (Liamine, 1993), in particular "more subtle, more complex, pulsating deteriorations [...] radiating out from centers of excessive population pressure (Nelson, 1990). And it seems to designate an absolute evil, while the salinization of an irrigated area, although reversible, may be a greater loss than the washing away of the last inch of topsoil in a marginal area. For FAO (1986) desertification "is only one extreme aspect of the widespread deterioration of ecosystems under the combined pressure of adverse climate and agricultural exploitation".

4/All the quotes in this section are from United Nations (1992).

5/ For a comparison of land degradation patterns among regions of the world, see the Annex, p.18.

6/ Globally 83 percent of land degradation is in the form of erosion: 70 percent mere loss of topsoil and 13 percent more severe terrain deformation.

7/ Population pressures under 600 persons per flow unit (P/FU; 1 FU = 1 million cubic meters) are not considered a serious issue, although water quality problems and dry season supply problems may occur. Between 600 and 1000 P/FU, chances of more recurrent quantitative or/and qualitative supply problems increase notably: this is called the "water stress" stage. Between 1000 and 2000 P/FU such problems are common and affect human and economic development; this is the "scarcity" stage. 2000 P/FU is seen as the maximum population pressure that can be handled in the present state of technology and management capabilities; it has been labeled "water barrier". This scale was developed from the observation of areas where both per caput supplies and resource use problems were well documented.

8/Scarcity-related concepts are indicative, in view of the different adaptive capacities of countries. In particular, the water barrier concept should not be taken literally; even if water shortage is indeed a medium-term barrier to development, there is a priori no indication that solutions for the long term cannot be found. Rather than impending absolute physical limits, the indicator points to steeply increasing costs of supply on account of increased investment and recurrent expenditure for water supply, treatment and/or re-use; in turn, the cost issue points to likely social problems for cost recovery. On the other hand, "in arid conditions, the problem is more complex because of considerable seasonal variations in rainfall. The largest need for irrigation water is during the dry season when the water accessible to people can be as low as 10 percent of the annual flow. Even countries with an average competition level of only 50 [P/FU] have considerable allocation problems during the dry season"; in addition, "national figures do not reflect the stress on water resources quality in local areas exerted by rapid urbanization and industrialization" (Falkenmark and Widstrand, 1992).

Engelman, E. and P. LeRoy (1993): Sustaining water. Population and the future of renewable water supplies. Washington, Population Action International.

Falkenmark, M. (1990): "Rapid population growth and water scarcity: the predicament of tomorrow's Africa", in: Resources, environment and population (K. Davis and M.S. Bernstam, eds.), pp. 81-94. Supplement to Population and Development Review, vol. 16.

Falkenmark, M. and Widstrand, C. (1992): Population and water resources: a delicate balance. Population Bulletin (Population Reference Bureau, Washington), vol. 47 no. 3.

FAO (1986): African agriculture: the next 25 years. Rome.

FAO (1995): Country tables. Basic data on the agricultural sector. Rome.

ISRIC (1991): World map of the status of human-induced soil degradation (by L.R. Oldeman, R.T.A. Hakkeling and W.G. Sombroek). Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD). Nairobi, UNEP.

Liamine, N. (1993): "Desertification - The issues and challenges", Ecoforum, vol. 17 no. 1/2 (April) pp. 11-21.

Nelson, R. (1990): Dryland management - The "desertification" problem. World Bank Technical Paper No 116. Washington.

United Nations (1977): Round-up, Plan of action and resolutions of UNCOD. New York.

United Nations (1992): Nations of the Earth report. UNCED national reports summaries. New York.

United Nations (1993): Agenda 21: Programme of action for sustainable development. New York.

United Nations (1995): Programme of action adopted at the International Conference on population and Development, Cairo, 5-13 September 1994. New York.

United Nations (1996): World population prospects: the 1996 revision. New York.

United Nations (1997): World urbanization prospects: the 1996 revision. New York.

World Resources Institute (1996): World resources 1996-97. New York, Oxford University Press.