Vol. 8 · No. 1 · 2004

Henri Rueff, Gideon Kressel and Moshe Schwartz

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International concern about the negative effects of desertification on human lives, livestock,and ecosystems increased in the 1990s. Overgrazing, land salinization resulting from poor irrigation methods, deforestation caused by social and economic factors and climate variations accelerate land degradation (UNCCD 1995). Around twenty percent of the world's population experiences its dire consequences.

Some scholars (Mortimore 1998; Perevolotsky 1995) have expressed reservations about attributing land degradation to an ever-growing livestock economy.Mortimore (1998)actually demonstrated that desertification theories overstated the damage caused by grazing. Indeed, he showed that grazing could be beneficial since manure generated by a large numbers of animals fertilizes the land. In times of drought, pastoralists lessen the load on the land by destocking or migrating. The cyclical pattern of nomadic pastoralism affords pastures a recovery period, improving their sustainability and confirming their role for dryland livestock rearing. Recently,international meetings and bodies have also acknowledged the contribution of mobile pastoralism to rangeland sustainability (Dana Declaration 2002; UNCCD - CRIC 2002)).