Case Study: Desertification in Botswana

Desertification is a type of land degradation where dry land regions become really arid (land becomes like a desert). It loses its bodies of water, vegetation and wildfire. A variety of factors including climate change and human activities such poor irrigation practices, bio-industrial practices and deforestation causes desertification.

Physical Characteristics of Botswana

            Climate: Climate change and the general rise in temperature in Botswana, both raise the evapotranspiration, which may lead to soil humidity and an increase in the number of droughts. The effect of temperature variations is the deterioration of topsoil in dry lands.

            Flora: There are immediate consequences on the capacity of vegetation to maintain or reconstruct itself, as there is land degradation due to droughts, salinity or over-exploitation. The poor vegetation will result in land degradation will be a desert like area.

            Fauna: Desertification usually loses its bodies of water and as well as vegetation and wildlife. Animals that are dependent on vegetation have to migrate to other areas for their resources otherwise they risk disappearing. The importance of this loss is because of the fact that plant and animal species from dry lands are particularly well adapted to the extreme environment. Their disappearance is a sign of significant habitat degradation so; they act as environmental condition indicators. This negative impact may cause desertification to occur in Botswana.

            Landscape: Process of desertification increase as land degradation occurs, causing soil to erode or even disappear. This has a direct impact on the water cycle, which causes it to be scarce or threatened. More droughts will occur as rainfall decreases.

Overgrazing which is when farmers allow livestock to graze to the point where they damage vegetation is a human cause of desertification in Botswana. Another cause is deforestation, a process of removing trees and transforming a forest into cleared land. The vegetation that protects the land is removed or damaged for both of these causes and therefore they are large human impacts. Other causes of desertification include farming of average land, destruction of plants in dry regions, and an incorrect irrigation in arid regions. The population, agriculture, development of market oriented economy, high cattle, groundwater and bore drilling are specific causes in Botswana. The population of Botswana has increased significantly causing more food to be produced. Botswana has become like a desert because there wasn’t enough water for everyone and not enough crops.

A problem associated with solving problems in Botswana is the large population. Desertification will only get worse unless population is managed. Decreasing the population will decrease human activity that causes a decrease in dry lands hence more rainfall. A major step taken to protect the environment and people is educating the public. People have tried to decrease overgrazing, deforestation, and destruction of natural habitat, which help Botswana from desertification in the long run.