desertification

Earth News

North Aral Sea restoration efforts show promise as water level rises

Restoration efforts including a dam and water use controls are helping Kazakhstan revive part of the shrinking Aral Sea.

19 February 2026

Climate

Hungary’s water guardians fight drought using waste from thermal spas

These volunteers are on a mission to save the Great Hungarian Plain from desertification.

29 December 2025

Earth News

The world loves argan oil but Morocco’s trees are paying the price

The hidden cost of argan oil's beauty boom is drought, deforestation and disappearing traditions.

29 July 2025

Climate

The environmental cost of Portugal’s olive oil boom

Environmentalists have condemned the unchecked spread of monoculture plantations in Alentejo.

13 April 2025

Climate

Climate change threatens to cover this ancient African city with sand

Chinguetti, Mauritania is home to some of West Africa’s oldest Quranic texts and manuscripts. It could soon be swallowed by the sand.

23 February 2025

Earth News

What happens when most of the planet turns to desert?

A UN summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, hopes to address global desertification - once-fertile lands turning arid.

10 December 2024

Climate

How is dust from Europe’s largest desert impacting the climate?

Understanding High-Latitude Dust could help to predict global warming and weather patterns.

17 November 2024

Nature

Sand and dust storms are 'dramatically' more frequent, UN warns

The world is losing 1 million square kilometres of productive land a year to sand and dust storms, the UN body in charge of fighting desertification has warned today.

15 November 2023

Nature

Why has the Olympic Committee planted 70,000 trees in Africa?

The forest is part of the ‘Great Green Wall,’ an African-led scheme to seed vegetation across degraded land in 22 countries in the Sahel region.

3 December 2022

Ecotech

Can planting trees prevent desertification in Jordan?

These women in water-scarce Jordan are planting seedlings in a bid to fight desertification.

4 May 2022