Desertification in Portugal: causes, consequences and possible solutions

Although desertification is not a new problem, world-wide population awareness is increasing. This problem has a greater impact in developing countries, where subsistence agriculture leads to very serious consequences as famine and sub-nutrition. However, desertification also affects the developed ones, because of, among other factors, unsustainable practices in the Agriculture and Forestry sectors combined with poor land management and weak policies. Without proper action, over 50 million people worldwide could be displaced by desertification and land degradation in the next decade. This paper, through a literature review, will approach the problem of desertification, with a special focus on the Portuguese case, its causes and consequences as well as some possible solutions. We conclude that driving forces of desertification can be separated into climate variations and Human activities and that its main consequences are environmental and social-economic. We also point out that, though technical solutions are abundant, part of the solution to this issue relays on attracting population back to the country side, involving the local people on the solution finding processes and increase the social benefits of exploring scarce resources, always bearing in mind the sustainability and the balance between the agro ecosystems and the natural ecosystems.