Many more animals than usual are grazing on a limited amount of land. This overgrazing causes a loss of vegetation—when herds of animals eat all the grass on a piece of land, the soil underneath is left vulnerable and unable to grow back quickly enough to meet the grazing demand of the livestock. People can’t live in these territories anymore and they can’t produce food and other stuff they need for life there. Desertification mostly affects rural households who are forced to depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. More so, drought and desertification lead to the migration of people to urban or other areas to engage in economic activities such as farming, grazing and fishing. This situation leads to severe economic crisis and poverty.
