IIED's former director writes about a new paradigm for development in the drylands of the Sahel.
IIED senior fellow Camilla Toulmin has co-authored a chapter about the drylands of the Sahel in a major new study about the concept of desertification and its impact on policy.
The End of Desertification? Disputing environmental change in the drylands is a landmark book about the concept of desertification, featuring contributions from a global team of experts on dryland issues.
The second chapter, entitled 'Desertification in the Sahel: local practice meets global narrative', is written by Toulmin and Karen Brock. It looks at crisis narratives about desertification, which have dominated policy discourse on the Sahelian drylands for decades, and examines how they have shaped policy interventions in the region.
Toulmin and Brock argue that solutions to the problems of dryland regions need to be rooted in a more nuanced understanding of ecological change and the complex links between people and climate. They call for a shift in power away from centralised government towards local people.
Toulmin is a senior fellow in IIED's Climate Change research group and the institute's former director. An economist by training, she has spent more than 30 years researching dryland communities in Mali.
She said: "My early professional life was spent showing why 'desertification' was a misguided and simplistic term, which confused decision-makers and led to interventions that were bad for drylands people and their environment.
"After 35 years, it's heartening to contribute to this book, and see the recent advances of science that confirm the need for governments to follow a decentralised, knowledge-based approach which works closely with local people and their institutions."
Toulmin is undertaking an 18-month study of villages in Mali, exploring the evolution of land use, changes in livelihoods and impacts of climate change.
The End of Desertification? explores the idea that the Sahel droughts were an early manifestation of climate change. The book also looks at narratives about desertification that are emerging in other dryland regions, particularly Asia.
The book is edited by two leading experts on drylands research, Roy Behnke and Michael Mortimore. They say the concept of desertification is no longer useful and distorts our understanding of social-environmental systems and their resilience, particularly in poor countries with variable rainfall.
In another contribution, Tor A. Benjaminsen of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences looks at narratives of climate change and conflict in the Sahel. He argues that conflicts tend to be rooted in historical and political issues, rather than being caused by drought.
Another contributor, Alessandra Giannini of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, looks at how scientists are evolving their understanding of weather patterns in the Sahel. In a recent IIED blog she suggested that ocean surface temperatures are influencing rainfall trends in the Sahel.
Reviews
"It is quite a shock to be presented with an abundance of evidence that 'desertification' doesn't happen – leastways, not in anywhere near the sense in which it has been explained," writes John Magrath for From Poverty to Power.
"A great new book has just been published... It is edited by two people who know a thing or two about these issues – Roy Behnke and Mike Mortimore – and it has 20 top quality chapters from all over the world, documenting why the term desertification has passed its sell-by date, if it ever had one at all," writes Ian Scoones for the STEPS Centre.
"This book provides a comprehensive, updated, and critical overview of the concept of desertification. It is very useful in understanding the natural science on the subject, but equally valuable for grasping the larger sociopolitical nexus," writes Ole Magnus Theisen for the Journal of Peace Research.
Desertification in the Sahel: local practice meets global narrative, chapter in The End of Desertification? Disputing environmental change in the drylands (2016), available to purchase from Springer, 560 pages, eBook (ISBN: 978-3-642-16014-1)