World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought | June 17

According to the UN, desertification is a phenomenon that ranks among the greatest environmental challenges of our time. Yet most people haven't heard of it or don’t understand it.

Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems (affecting two billion people who depend on ecosystems in dry land areas, mostly in developing countries in Africa) by human activities — including unsustainable farming, mining, overgrazing and clear-cutting of land — and by climate change.