Desertification and Degradation Risks vs Poverty: A Key Topic in Mediterranean Europe

Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica

Jesús Rodrigo-Comino¹  Antonio Giménez-Morera²  Gianluca Egidi³  Luca Salvati⁴  Rosanna Salvia⁵  Giovanni Quaranta⁶ 

[1] Departamento de Análisis Geográfico Regional y Geografía Física, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain;Departamento de Economía y Ciencias Sociales, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Alcoy, Universitat Politècnica de València. Plaza Ferrandiz y Carbonell s/n, 03801 Alcoy, Alicante, Spain;Department of Agricultural and Forestry scieNcEs (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, I-01100 Viterbo, Italy;Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Via Armaroli 43, I-62100 Macerata, Italy;Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics, University of Basilicata, Via Nazario Sauro, 85, 85100 Potenza, Italy.;Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics, University of Basilicata, Via Nazario Sauro, 85, 85100 Potenza, Italy;

关键词: land degradation;    regional geographical disparities;    demographic dynamics;    social processes;    southern europe;   

DOI  :  10.18172/cig.4850

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Land degradation and, subsequently, desertification processes are conditioned by biophysical factors and human impacts. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest by social scientists to assess its implications. Especially, it is relevant to the potential changes and landscape deterioration on population, economic systems and feedbacks of local societies to such adjustments. Assessing social facets should also be related to desertification risks, integrated socio-economic inputs and environmentally sustainable development perspectives. However, investigations about the effects of land degradation conditioned by global socioeconomic-factors from a holistic point of view are scarce. In this review, we pretend to discuss past and recent findings on land degradation risks related to poverty, especially based on Mediterranean Europe. To achieve this goal, we focused on key socioeconomic forces such as developmental policy, production and market structure, social change and population mobility. Our review showed that regional disparities based on complex dynamics of demographic forces (e.g. migration, fertility and ageing) and economic drivers of change (e.g. industrial concentration, urbanization, crop intensification, tourism pressure, coastalization) are keys to understand Mediterranean regions such as Southern Italy, a region exposed to high desertification risk in Europe. We concluded that the overexploitation of territories, soil and water degradation urban expansion, tourism and unplanned industrialization are some sectors and activities which can be highly affected by political and socioeconomic forces leading to unsustainable forms of land management and types of development. Special attention should be paid to social policies, education and training schemes to reduce rural migration and potentiate territorial knowledge to avoid land degradation, considering other social issues such as poverty or centralization. The potential role of win-win policies abating poverty and reducing desertification risk is evident in Mediterranean Europe and achieving land degradation neutrality necessary.

【 授权许可】

Unknown