Desertification in The Sahel

Lesson objectives:

• To know where the Sahel is located.


• To know that the Sahel has undergone desertification in recent decades.


• To understand the causes and consequences of desertification in the Sahel.


• To recognise that people can manage land in a sustainable manner to reduce the impacts of further desertification.
  

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Where is the Sahel?

The Sahel region lies just to the south of the Sahara Desert in Africa.

The Sahel has been heavily affected by the process of desertification - this means that the land is turning to desert. Desertification happens because of both physical and human factors. The term 'land degradation' tends to be linked to the human factors, with 'desertification' being linked to climate change.

This clip from BBC Bitesize provides a useful summary of the topic. It is a video file - you will need to turn your speakers on or plug your headphones in before you watch it! Alternatively (or additionally if you're feeling keen!) you could watch the green.tv clip - I can't work out how to embed this in the blog, so please click on the link and then watch the movie in a new window.

Here is the PowerPoint we used during the lesson:

The extension task was to add arrows to the flow chart showing how a range of factors interact to cause desertification. The chart without the arrows is here.

An example of a completed flow chart is shown below.