World Bank Document
69972 Options for Preparing a Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Program in Mali Consistent with TerrAfrica for World Bank Engagement at the Country Level Introduction Public Disclosure Authorized 1. Background and rationale: 1. One of the most environmentally vulnerable areas of the world is the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and Southeast Africa. Mali, as with other dryland areas in this category, suffers from droughts approximately every 30 years. These droughts triple the number of people exposed to severe water scarcity at least once in every generation, leading to major food and health crisis. In general, dryland populations lag far behind the rest of the world in human well-being and development indicators. Similarly, the average infant mortality rate for dryland developing countries exceeds that for non-dryland countries by 23% or more. The human causes of degradation1 and desertification2 include direct factors such as land use (agricultural expansion in marginal areas, deforestation, overgrazing) and indirect factors (policy failures, population pressure, land tenure). The biophysical impacts of dessertification are regional and global climate change, impairment of carbon sequestation capacity, dust storms, siltation into rivers, downstream flooding, erosion gullies and dune formation. The social impacts are devestating- increasing poverty, decreased agricultural and silvicultural production and sometimes Public Disclosure Authorized malnutrition and/or death. 2. There are clear links between land degradation and poverty. Poverty is both a cause and an effect of land degradation. Poverty drives populations to exploit their environment unsustainably because of limited resources, poorly defined property rights and limited access to credit, which prevents them from investing resources into environmental management.
[Show full text]