Natural Hazards: Causes and Effects - Disaster Management Center ...

Recovery, Mitigation Problems and Strategies
Solutions: General Considerations
Must Have Human and Social Objectives
Because desertification is a slow-onset disaster that is part of a constant climatic cyclical trend,
the response must be synthesized into the values and routines of daily life. Measures to
combat it must ultimately be directed toward people, toward sustaining and improving their
livelihoods. Thus, measures to combat desertification must be seen as having human and
social objectives. They must be inspired by an acknowledgement of dryland people’s rights to
acceptable standards of health, nutrition, education, livelihood and social well-being, consistent
with human dignity.
Respect for Lifestyles
Traditional social values must be recognized, and the life styles and ancient knowledge
developed through long adaptation to the dryland environment must be respected.
The approach should be an integrated one, in which proposals involving technological or
environmental change are linked with social and economic measures undertaken to advance
development.
Community Involvement
Measures to combat desertification will not succeed without the willing participation of local
communities. The need to work through existing livelihood systems and established local
patterns must be recognized. The involvement of the community must be sought, as by
enlisting the example of community leaders. It may be necessary to create incentives toward
community participation. The practicality and advantages of proposed measures should be
demonstrated at the earliest stage through realistic pilot projects. The enlistment of community
participation should not be thought of exclusively in terms of outside experts persuading people
to do what the experts think is good for them. Local knowledge should also be enlisted.
Sometimes the best procedure would be the elimination of obstacles to the good land-use
practices that local people would otherwise prefer to carry out.
Interdependence of Land Types
Plans for the reclamation and improved use of rainfed croplands should be a part of integrated
schemes for the use of functional areas such as drainage catchments. The interdependence of
uplands, foothills, and valleys, with their associated land use, must be recognized.
Using Maps in Planning
A first step in formulating a plan is to map land types and land use at a scale appropriate to
cropping (using a scale of 1:50,000 to 1:250,000, depending on conditions). The land units
mapped should be classified according to potential use as determined by the existence of
hazards, such as steepness and length of slope, the presence of stones or rocks, the risk of
flooding, the quality of the drainage and vulnerability to wind erosion.
Planning Strategies
Recommendations as to how the various parts of the land should be used will constitute the
plan, which must recognize appropriate limits to rainfed cropping, as determined by rainfall,
terrain, soils, and relationships with adjacent land uses such as forestry or grazing. The
marginal lands outside these limits should be removed from cropping by acquisition, by financial
inducements or by the establishment of forest, grazing or water-catchment reserves. When