African Drylands Overview

Principles

Definition

African drylands is a research concept identifying the arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions spanning the African continent, characterized by low precipitation and high evaporation rates. As an academic field, it investigates the unique ecological dynamics, biophysical processes, socio-economic systems, and human-environment interactions within these environments, focusing on issues of climate change adaptation, land degradation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable livelihoods due to their significant area and large human populations.

Ontological type

Land degradation processes

Livelihood systems

Climatic drivers

Key developments

Key Figures

Climate-Biotic Feedbacks era

Louis H. Le Houérou synthesized evidence from Sahelian and sub-Saharan rangelands that desertification arises from feedbacks among climate variability, woody-vegetation dynamics, and grazing pressure. C. S. Holling provided the resilience and adaptive-cycle framework that framed climate–biotic feedbacks as coupled, nonlinear processes with potential regime shifts in dryland states. Frank J. McNaughton and collaborators offered key empirical demonstrations that herbivory can drive vegetation structure and surface properties, linking grazing to hydrological stress and albedo changes in savanna ecosystems. Across ecology, geography, and rangeland science, the era built representative models of coupled climate–vegetation–herbivore dynamics that underpinned pastoral livelihoods and policy debates on land degradation.

Resilience and Abrupt Change era

David S.G. Thomas [1] is associated with the University of Oxford [2] and the University of Sheffield [3] during the Resilience and Abrupt Change era. Thomas [1] contributed to the World Atlas of Desertification [4], a global synthesis that mapped desertification patterns and connected them to resilience and vulnerability concepts. Thomas [1] further emphasized long-term dynamics and cross-scale interactions to inform adaptive management in drought-prone drylands. Thomas [1]'s approach culminated in vulnerability mapping and atlas-based regional syntheses that drew on the World Atlas of Desertification [4], guiding policy indicators of degradation risk.

Integrated Adaptation and Resilience era

Claudia Ringler[1] has been a leading voice in integrated adaptation in African drylands during this era, with affiliations at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign[3] and New York University[4]. Her work on determinants of farmers’ choice of adaptation methods to climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia[7] (2009) identified how local decision processes shape adoption, underscoring why understanding farmer behavior is essential for designing multisector resilience strategies in this era. Rashid Hassan[2] has been a prominent scholar in dryland resilience, with affiliations at University of Pretoria[5] and Karachi Medical and Dental College[6]. In this era, Rashid Hassan[2] highlighted determinants of farmers’ adaptation choices in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia[7], contributing to understanding barriers and incentives for adoption and guiding policy-relevant, integrated adaptation pathways.