*Migrations and Desertification in Portugal*

André Vizinho

andrevizinho@gaia.org.pt

Diréccion Postal:

André Vizinho

Monte da Charnequinha

7630-290 Colos

Portugal

ABSTRACT

Desertification in Portugal is a word used to describe both the physical and social processes. Understanding the causes of soil and land desertification shows that one of the main responsible activities that caused the high levels of soil erosion observed in Portugal was the Wheat Campaing imposed on the farmers by the authoritarian fascist regime in the 1930s. The reduction on income on of the farmers and rural populations together with the rise of mechanized industrial agriculture have created significant migrations of people to urban dynamic areas. These migrations create impacts on both rural, urban and suburban areas. The causes of social and soil desertification are very closely connected and the solution must therefore be integrated. The existing knowledge is enough to combat desertification. Action must be focused on demonstration projects and integrated changes in the economic system.

Migrations and Desertification in Portugal

The word desertification is commonly used in Portugal to explain both the physical process of land turning into desert and the social process of the abandonment of rural areas. Migration and rural abandonment in Portugal have been mostly perceived as phenomenons caused only by economic and social issues and it was not was not until 1999, with the creation of the National Plan of Combat to Desertification (PANCD), that soil and land desertification started to be considered in the national and regional planning instruments (Louro, 2006).

In short, soil and land desertification are mainly caused by the activities of human populations, through bad agricultural practices, bad forest management, overgrazing, soil contamination and erosion. Consequently, the soil is overexploited or left unprotected and subject to wind or water erosion. Forest fires also contribute in a great extent to soil erosion due to the consequent exposure of soil to water and wind erosion. Soil degradation and desertification in developed countries first manifests through the reduction of the income of farmers and agriculture (Hare F. K. et al. 1977). This reduction on income due to lower productivity of the natural systems is partially responsible for migrations of unemployed people that move to more attractive urban areas where economic activity is more dynamic and promising. Susan Adamo in the study “Migrations and desertification in the dry-lands of Argentina” concludes that migration may be considered an individual or household adaptive strategy used to confront environmental problems that threat the resource production base (Adamo, 2003).

In Portugal, migrations and consequent rural abandonment are caused by environmental, social and economic factors. In fact, the causes of rural-urban migrations can be seen as synergistic since the initial migrations of people to urban areas create a series of incentives for rural inhabitants to migrate as well. These are the reduction of population, reduction of available work-force, the lack of services, the reduced support/investment from local authorities, the closing out of basic services like health or education, the ageing of population, the lack of artistic and cultural activities, the loss of value of traditional knowledge, etc. Simultaneously, rural populations have reduced levels of formal education and in some regions 37% are completely illiterate and an additional 30% have only primary education (Correia, T. P., 2006). This reduced level of formal education again contributes to an increased difficulty in adapting to new agricultural practices, new economic practices, new technologies, new strategies for marketing traditional products, etc (Johnson and Lehmann, 2006).

Portugal is more affected by rural abandonment than soil and land desertification (Louro, 2006). The areas that are more vulnerable to soil desertification (see index of susceptibility to desertification in PANCD:http://panda.igeo.pt/pancd/) are rural areas where abandonment and migration have been high. At the same time, an analysis on the district level ( freguesia in Portuguese) has shown that Portugal is not divided only between the advanced, dynamic coastal region and the undeveloped and traditional interior rural Portugal. In fact, there are many “bubbles” in the interior where people have been attracted to and population levels have risen (Ferrão J., 2004).

As people migrate into urban more dynamic areas, the rural land is then partially abandoned diminishing the social responsibility of new investment projects in the region and thus giving space for large scale monoculture intensive plantations of olive trees, eucalyptus, pine trees, fruit trees, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), etc. which are aimed for fast profits, mechanized work, low employment rates and possibly unsustainable agricultural practices that again reinforce both soil and human desertification. These kind of large scale monoculture intensive plantations are a phenomena that is growing in Portugal and need more research in order to fully understand their real positive and negative impacts both on the environmental and social levels. This phenomena of large scale monoculture plantations is actually one of the main responsible for soil erosion in Portugal due to the Wheat Campaign that started in the 1930s imposed on all farmers by the fascist regime of Salazar. This campaign had a positive economic impact on the short term but it negative effects or soil desertification can last for 7000 thousands years, until nature regenerates all the lost soils.

The analysis of current precipitation trends and forecasts in climate change scenarios suggest that droughts in regions with high susceptibility to desertification will become more and more frequent together with storm events that together increase soil erosion and reduce productivity (Soares, A. 2006).

Portugal is, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (www.unccd.int), not classified as one of the world extreme regions of desertification since the targets areas of migrant populations that move from vulnerable regions are not arid, sub-arid or sub-humid dry climate regions and have reduced vulnerability to desertification. In Portugal, 40% of population live in the two metropolitan areas of Lisboa and Porto (Correia, T. P., 2006) and have converged here in the internal migration processes that occurred mainly since 1970s. Since these new population cause high levels of pressure on these metropolitan areas on different aspects, desertification can be understood as a problem that not only affects the rural areas of Portugal but also the quality of life in the cities.

The causes of soil, land and human desertification are, as seen above, connected and dependent which shows that desertification is a problem caused by humans, with impacts on human life and that cannot be separately studied from the environmental aspect in terms of causes or solutions. Urban areas are pressuring the agriculture standards on rural areas that at the same time send people to suburban areas causing social and environmental problems ahead. A dysfunctional unstable political and economic system leads to bad management of resources and people and therefore causes additional problems. A stable political system with high levels of education and economic prosperity allows for the investment in good adaptation strategies for regenerating the soils that have been destroyed in the past and recovering and adapting the traditional knowledge in order to efficiently use the natural resources of vulnerable lands (Sarukhan and White, 2005). The knowledge and resources needed to combat desertification already exist (Hare F. K. et al. 1977). Action should be focused on developing demonstration projects and integrated changes on the economic system through determination of civil society, political will, planning, involvement of local communities, training for sustainability and action.

REFERENCES

Adamo, S. B. Vulnerable people in fragile lands: migration and desertification in the drylands of Argentina : the case of the department of Jachal. Doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 2003. Available electronically from http://hdl.handle.net/2152/66.

Correia, T. P. (ed). Estudo sobre o abandono em Portugal Continental, Universidade de Évora, 2006

Ferrão, J. Dinâmicas territoriais e trajectórias de desenvolvimento: Portugal 1991-2001, Universidade de Lisboa, 2004.

Hare F. K. et al. Desertificação, Causas e Consequências , Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1992; copyright United Nations. 1977

Johnson, B. ,Lahmann, M., Sustainability and Cities as systems of innovation, Denmark. 2006 .Available electronically from http://www.druid.dk/index.php?id=22

Louro, V. “O essêncial são as pessoas”, Pessoas e Lugares, n. 39 (2006), pp 4-5.

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Sarukhan, J., White, A. (ed). Ecosystems and human well-being: Desertification synthesis. Millennium ecosystem assessment , USA, 2005.

Soares, A. “A criação da ROADS – a gestão do fenómeno da desertificação e seca em Portugal”, Pessoas e Lugares, n. 39 (2006), pp 6.