By far the larger problem is not the advance of the desert along its edge, but the deterioration of the land due to human abuse in regions outside – and in some cases quite removed from -the desert itself. The problem is emanating not from the desert but from the centers of population; not from the spread of the sand dunes but from the spread of people and their mismanagement of the land. Therefore, protecting the frontline may do nothing to halt the degradation behind it. The true challenge is not so much to stop the desert at the edge of a region, as to protect the region itself from internal abuse of its vegetation and of its soil and water resources.
