Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Environmental Studies, grade: 1,7, University of Osnabrück, language: English, abstract: With accuracy everybody has seen the pictures of human beings nothing but skin and bones, too weak to walk, using their last reserves of power to get some food in the news before. Most of these shocking pictures come from drylands. To put it more precisely from arid and semi-arid areas especially on the African continent. Beneath wars, droughts, underdevelopment and poverty the apparent invisible process of growing deserts is one reason for such horrible pictures. But the growth of deserts is not only an African or only a Third World problem. You can also "notice" it in other areas like for example in the Great Plains and the Middle East. This is the reason why we inevitably have to ask the question if desertification is only a central problem for desert-near areas. Through a short clarification of one`s term followed by a detailed specification of causes and consequences of desertification and a concluding attempt to give a slight image of possibilities of solutions, preventions and after-care I will try to answer the question and show the reader the connection of human actions, natural influences and desertification. In my expositions I mainly followed the work of Nick Middelton because it explains shortly but comprehensible a complex process and gives a good view about the main causes and consequences of desertification.