Deforestation and desertification. Critical development issues?

Drought and desertification threaten the livelihood of more than 1.2 billion people
across 110 countries. Around 2 billion people live in “dry-lands”, which occupy around
40 per cent of the earth´s land surface, while 90 per cent of the people who live in
drylands are from DC (Kingsbury et al. 2012,314). Drought and desertification effect
strongly the development of a country. The town Baga in Nigeria, was once a
fisherman´s village. It was at the coast of the Tschad lake, now it is more than 30km
away from the lake. The increasing desertification of the region at Tschad lake drove the
city to become agriculturally centred, the outcome of desertification for the local
population is significant.
This essay argues for a strong impact of “environmental” problems like desertification
and deforestation on the development of a country. This essay wants to highlight the
importance of these problems for development science. The key argument of this essay
is the reciprocal influence between development and environmental problems.
Development often generates environmental problems, which in turn aggravates future
development.