Debt causes deserts

 

Debt is causing desertification, according to Blaise Compaoré, president of Burkina Faso and acting president of the Organisation of African Unity. Compaoré was speaking at a World Conservation Union meeting in France on 4 November and his comments were reported in the Guardian (5 November 1998).

Burdened with foreign debt and facing rampant poverty, the countries of the Sahel region have been unable to address the fundamental needs of their people. This poverty leads to the excessive exploitation of natural resources, leading to the cutting of trees, fires and erosion, which in turn accelerate the advance of the desert, he explained.

This, in turn, leads to migration and conflict. Millions of people in at least 12 countries have fled once fertile land now degraded in barren Sahel desert.

Debt relief is one element in breaking this cycle.