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Plans to halt desertification

Thu, 04 September 10:00

Plans to halt desertification

Petrified landscape: The view towards the Tabernas

The Ministry for the Environment has given approval for a national programme of action to combat desertification in compliance with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. According to diagnostic reports, 37 per cent of Spanish territory is at risk from desertification, almost 18% classified as at very high or risk and 19% medium risk. The areas most affected are the Canary Islands and the south-east of the peninsula. Most recognized deserts have an annual rainfall of less than 400 millimetres, although some authorities still consider 250 millimetres the upper limit for mean annual precipitation for true deserts, classifying areas with a mean annual rainfall of between 250 and 400 millimetres as semideserts. But measurement of rainfall alone doesn't provide an accurate definition of what a desert is because aridity also depends on evaporation, which depends, in part, on temperature. The main problem in Spain is that land becomes unable to sustain vegetation, which in turn leads to erosion and desertification.
Almost 50 per cent of Jaen province is at very high risk, as is Almeria (home to Europe’s only desert, the 280 square kilometre Tabernas desert) with 49% of its territory at this level of risk, Granada with 47%, Cordoba with 44%, Malaga with 30%, Sevilla with 29% and lastly Cadiz with only ten per cent of its area at high or very high risk.
The proposed measures include the protection and management of existing forests, reforestation programmes, control of grazing and steps to halt erosion and retain more rainfall.

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