Items tagged:
Sahel
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Long-term change in the Malian Sahel: portrait of Dlonguebougou village
IIED has documented social and environmental change in the village of Dlonguebougou in central Mali. The research has examined transformations to land use, people, and livelihoods in this dryland region over 35 years
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How oceans dried out the Sahel
Alessandra Giannini challenges the view that local people were to blame for drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s – and explains how climate models now show the cause lies in the oceans
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The end of desertification?
Droughts in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel introduced the idea of desertification to a worldwide audience. However it can be argued that the concept of desertification has ceased to be analytically useful and distorts our understanding of social-environmental systems and their resilience. For better policy and governance, we need to reconsider the scientific justification for attempts to manage drylands by combating desertification
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Does climate change cause conflicts in the Sahel?
The Sahel is often recognised as a hotspot of violent conflict. As climate change becomes a leading global political issue, an emerging and increasingly powerful policy narrative presents global warming as a major driver. But how valid is this argument?
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Climate change winners and losers in Sahel
Earlier this month, I spent a week in Mali, going back to the villages which I have studied for the past 30 years. While international climate negotiators met in Cancun, Mexico, for the UN summit on climate change, I was keen to catch up on how climate change was affecting livelihoods in the West African Sahel.
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Less erosion, less warming
I recently met with a Member of the Bangladesh Parliament to discuss the potential for mitigation in the agricultural sector under IIED’s work on the economics of climate change in the agricultural sector. Agriculture produces 10–12 per cent of total global emissions but also has considerable mitigation potential — 70 per cent of which is in developing countries — and I expected the Honourable Member, a well known climate change champion, to back the cause. But he did not seem entirely convinced. Why should decision makers listen? What’s in it for them?
