The book collects the papers presented during the Sectoral Workshop on Socio-economic consequences and human aspects of desertification process (Campus de Excelencia, Fuerteventura, 11th July of 2007) and also those presented in the Conference on Desertification and Environmental Security: Consequences and Prevention (Cosmo Caixa, Fundación "La Caixa" Madrid, 9-11th March of 2006), likewise it includes the Manifesto on Desertification, Poverty and Migrations, prepared in the Campus de Excelencia 2007.
As a result of human activities and climate change the processes of desertification are progressing. Around 40% of the earth surface is threatened by risk of desertification, including wide areas of Mediterranean Europe and the Canary archipelago. Desertification, at the latest consequences represents the dismantling of all biospheric potential of the affected zone and its conversion into a barren and unproductive territory. Te effects of soil degradation not only menace the land agricultural potential of providing food and biomass but also its implies the alteration of the hydrological cycle, drastic decrease in biodiversity, development of feedback mechanisms affecting important climatic parameters, and in addition, the increase of the catastrophic consequences of hazards such as forest fires, landslides and floods. All these processes give rise to important human and socio-economic implications.
Spain is the most arid country in the European continent and also the most affected by the desertification risk. However, the social perception of this problem is limited and, generally, its intricate mechanisms and processes are not visualized as something worrying at the level of perception of, for example, the tendency to global warming. Contributing to a greater information and scientific and social implication in the fight against desertification, in this book are analyzed processes and factors, biophysical and socio-economic consequences, scientific and technological responses, and proposals of integrative, participatory and implicated initiatives to avoid and reverse the tendency of the desertification menace.