Reforestation and sustainable land & water management can help combat desertification

Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Serena Ferrari, Economist and Researcher at CIRAD. Desertification is driven by climate change, explains Ferrari, but economic and political choices, including intensive water use, chemical-dependent agriculture and the pursuit of ever-higher productivity, can intensify pressure on already fragile ecosystems. Mongolia makes this particularly visible: as a pastoralist and rangeland country facing an increasingly harsh climate, it stands at the intersection of the ecological and social questions being debated at COP17.