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This book focuses on two basic concepts: and in the Mediterranean Region and their linkages. It emerged from a single meeting of the “Workshop on Desertification in the Mediterranean Region. A Security Issue” held in Valencia, Spain on 2-5 December 2003, which was sponsored by the NATO Science Committee and NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society.

Desertification (representing soil degradation) is one of the three nature-induced (climate change, hydrological cycle) and of three primarily human-induced challenges (population growth, urbanisation and food) of global environmental change. These six components closely interact and contribute to fatal outcomes: primarily to extreme weather events and hydro-meteorological disasters (drought, flash floods, storms) and environmentally-induced migrations. These two fatal outcomes may have – in some cases – societal repercussions that may trigger or contribute to domestic, regional and international crisis and conflicts and thus they may become an issue of both human, societal, national and international security. To illustrate the causal linkages: for example in Morocco in the 1980s and 1990s, the following chain of events could be observed: severe drought, increase in food prices, hunger riots, general strikes, the police and armed forces interfered to repress these violent upheavals and subsequently hundreds of casualties could be deplored. These cases were not listed as a conflict in the relevant conflict data bases.

This chapter assesses the implications of desertification in the Euro-Mediterranean space. In doing so, assessments of environmental and human security aspects significant to this geographic space help broaden the geostrategic significance of the region. The chapter argues that there are crucial differences between threats and vulnerabilities, distinguishes between the two, and suggests relevant policy applications for Euro-Mediterranean states. Some of these vulnerability aspects, including desertification, present long-term challenges to stability and security. The analysis includes a review of theoretical models that have been proposed in research. Specifically, this review addresses what have been argued as “trigger mechanisms ” that can unleash violent conflict, create socio-economic disparity, and induce long-term insecurity. In lieu of an overarching conclusion, a number of suggestions are included for both future research and possible policy solutions.

Traditional production systems in the Sahel are based on the integration of activities sharing and competing for renewable resources (water and soil fertility) under threat of desertification. A framework of relationships ranking from conflict to collaboration between human groups devoted to agriculture and pastoralism has been developed throughout history and has proven to be successful in sustaining the livelihood of the region’s population. Changes in the economic, social and political structure of the Sahel related to the process of colonization and de-colonization substantially altered the way in which resource scarcity was dealt previously. In a context of widespread social tension and political instability, this is thought to have increased the likelihood of farmers-herders conflicts. In this paper, we explore the worsening security conditions of the rural Sahel in the light of the new environmental security theories, which help to widen the focus of conflict analysis bringing in social, political, economical and environmental issues that were formerly disregarded.

Desertification is a relatively new term but it is also an old issue in the European Mediterranean zone corroborated by the abundance of historical references highlighting the concern of different cultures on important land degradation processes in the region. The perception of this issue has been changing through time with periods of more environmental sensitivity and awareness alternating with periods of less attention and sensibility. In recent decades, a conceptual evolution has occurred, passing from a vaguely defined but real problem to a progressive assimilation and clarification of the physical and socio-economical processes involved, their factors, causes and also the impacts and consequences. In February 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) came into being. The UNCCD dedicates one of its Annexes to the specific problems of affected countries of the Northern Mediterranean region.

Desertification problems in Algeria are defined in terms of development. An examination of natural resources degradation (including soil, vegetation, water), seems to indicate that the principal causes of this phenomenon are principally of human origin. The South Algerian region, including a large part of the Sahara Desert, is already desertified, but this process is also of great concern in the northern regions and as well as on the steppes where more than half of the surface (20 millions of hectares) is threatened by desertification.

The Arab Republic of Egypt is situated in the northeastern corner of Africa, lying within the great Sahara desert.

Desertification is the loss of complexity of biological and/or economic productivity of crop-, range- or wood-lands. Reasons of such a loss is mainly due to climatic change and unsustainable human activities. The arid and semi-arid lands of Jordan are sensitive to human interference that resulted in a severe depletion of its natural resources and in different forms of land degradation due to multiple interaction of socio-economic factors. Further, degradation will continue if human activities are not carefully controlled and managed. Almost 90% of the land area of Jordan receives less than 200 mm of rainfall annually. This is reflected in poor structural stability of soils and the subsequent vulnerability to excessive erosion following shallow rainstorm events. Such a fragile ecosystem has also been manifested by non sustainable land use patterns and poor vegetative cover of the range land and the remaining forest batchs. Therefore, most of the economic activities take place on the remaining 10% of the land area and the competition between different user groups for these lands is, therefore, intense.

Bioclimatically, The Mediterranean basin comprises a transition between southern desert (Saharian-Arabian deserts) and northern non-desert (European woodlands). Using UNEP’s aridity classification, the political boundaries of all Mediterranean countries include the whole range of dryland types: from south to north, southern Mediterranean countries which are closer to the Sahara-Arabian deserts than the northern Mediterranean countries, have hyper-arid drylands (true deserts), semi-arid drylands, and dry-subhumid drylands; north Mediterranean countries have semi-arid drylands, dry subhumids drylands, and nondrylands regions – humid areas. The UNCCD does not regard hyper-arid drylands as prone to desertification, hence all Mediterranean countries have within their boundaries areas prone to desertification and areas not prone to desertification; in southern Mediterranean countries not prone to desertification are the southern-most and driest regions, and in the northern Mediterranean countries – these are the northern-most and driest region, and in the northern Mediterranean countries – these are the northern-most and least dry regions. The eastern Mediterranean countries – Israel, Lebanon and Syria combined, present the full southnorthen gradients of the global drylands. The southernmost of the three, Israel comprises all four dryland types within its boundaries with more than half of its territory prone to desertification, and the analysis of its development, desertification and security can serve as a case study with lessons to the Mediterranean region as a whole.

Severely stricken by successive periods of drought, Morocco has made desertification control, drought mitigation, and environment protection, in general, top priorities in its socio-economic development.