Description

This resource has a number of key objectives – to raise awareness of desertification; to show how it impacts on the MDGs; to provide teachers a solid background on desertification; to encourage teachers and students to act locally to combat desertification and to demonstrate that desertification can be tackled.

The resource reviews the Convention to Combat Desertification and how it links with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and with the Convention on Biological Diversity – all three Conventions arose from the 1992 Earth Summit.  The concentration is on the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa with some brief additional materials.

24 pages in length, the resource has 3 core sections – on defining and understanding desertification; on its impact and consequences and on biodiversity and what we can do (with many practical examples).  It includes a broad range of facts and information plus student worksheets with answers.  The resource complements course units on Geo-Ecology; Global Interdependence; The Dynamics of Population; and Patterns and Processes in the Physical Environment (II) External Forces.

At Junior Certificate level the resource relates directly to the themes of Primary Economic Activity; Economic Inequality; Climate and Natural Resources; Population Distribution, Diversity and Change.

Big Ideas in this Resource

• explores the nature and causes of desertification as well as it impact on individuals and communities
• it places desertification in the broader context of climate change and other development issues such as poverty, gender equality and the MDGs
• it explores what people in Ireland can do to combat desertification and offers a range of practical actions to be considered.