Government policies and land degradation in the Middle East

Abstract

AbstractThe majority of the Middle East is characterized as arid or semiarid and thus susceptible to degradation or even desertification. This paper evaluates long‐term trends in vegetation productivity in the Middle East by means of satellite imagery and discusses the effects of government policies on these trends. Based on yearly estimates of vegetation productivity derived from NDVI, a temporal linear regression model is fitted, pixel by pixel, and the results express the temporal development of vegetation productivity in the region. The results indicate that large‐scale land degradation is not the overall impression in the study area. Approximately 3 per cent of the total area was found to be affected by a marked decline, but only approximately 1 per cent of the total area is affected by significant decreases in vegetation productivity. Three different areas are selected for an in‐depth analysis of the effect of government policies for the trends seen. The three cases—the newly claimed desert lands in Egypt, the marshes in Iraq, and the restructuring process in Israel—are all areas that have undergone significant changes in terms of vegetation productivity over the last twenty years. The results show that these changes are an outcome of government policies rather than local land use practices and these policies can increase or decrease degradation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.