What is the primary factor driving desertification?
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Answer: B. Overgrazing
Explanation
Desertification is the severe degradation of land in arid and semi-arid regions due to various factors. Overgrazing strips protective vegetation cover and exposes vulnerable topsoil to wind and water erosion. Livestock trampling compacts soil structure, preventing moisture infiltration and accelerating regional desertification. Land degradation in drylands reduces biological productivity and alters regional hydrological cycles. Human activities combined with climate variability create feedback loops that expand existing desert borders. Sustainable pastoral management is essential to prevent livestock from exceeding the carrying capacity of rangelands.
Global environmental programs combat desertification by implementing community-based rotational grazing systems. Stopping overgrazing helps native grasses recover, stabilizing soil and restoring vital watershed functions. Policy makers utilize desertification assessments to allocate resources for dryland rehabilitation and poverty alleviation. Irrigated agriculture can cause salinization, but overgrazing is the most widespread human driver of dryland degradation. Tourism generates localized footprint impacts but lacks the massive regional land transformation scale of overgrazing. Developmental activities affect specific urban corridors rather than driving widespread rural desertification trends.
- Subject
- Agriculture
- Category
- Forestry
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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