Assessing Desertification and Water Harvesting in the Middle East and North Africa: Policy Implications

Mamdouh Nasr

No 279852, Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Abstract: This study examines four sets of questions: What is desertification, and how can its impact on productivity be monitored? How extensive is the desertification problem in the MENA region now, and how has it changed over time? What is the current status of the water-harvesting techniques used to control desertification in the MENA region? What are the main demographic, technical, social, and economic forces driving the problem as it now exists and how will it be influenced by observable trends, particularly in Egypt? Potential policy actions and their implications are discussed against the background of what is already being done in governmental and non-governmental efforts to address the problem of desertification in the MENA region. At the same time the research explores the economics of water harvesting in the region and its potentials for expanded desert utilization. The study presents environmental data on each of the countries in the MENA region and on the region as a whole, which was collected by a satellite remote sensing system over the last 17 years. The images of the MENA region produced by the NOAA satellite showed no alarming damage to vegetation – quite the opposite: we estimated that the vegetational boundary has expanded into the desert in most of the MENA countries due to human actions.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59
Date: 1999-07-01
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ubzefd:279852

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.279852

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