17th June World Day to Combat Desertification

Every year on June 17th, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought highlights methods to prevent desertification. It’s also a day to focus on finding ways to recover from drought.

Desertification is the process by which fertile land becomes desert. This is usually a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.

There are also ways to reverse land degradation. This includes planting trees, enriching the soil with nutrients, preventing soil erosion, and establishing seed banks.

It’s more important than ever to combat desertification and drought. This is because by the year 2050, there needs to be enough productive land to meet the demands of 10 billion people.

In Australia drought can be a major problem, as rainfall is not always the same every year. Indigenous Australians are very good at 'reading' country so a good place to start with children is to look at a book such as Country Tells Us When... by Taheena Cooper 

Some Australian picture books that help explain drought to children:

• Two Summers  by John Heffernan and Freya Blackwood

• It's a Miroocool! by Christine Harris and Ann James 

• All I Want for Christmas is Rain by Cori Brooke and Megan Forward

• When the Waterhole Dried Up by Kaye Baillie and Max Hamilton

• Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein and Bronwyn Bancroft

• Mrs White and the Red Desert by Josie Boyle and Maggie Prewett

• Drought by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

• The Story of Rosy Dock by Jeannie Baker

Deforestation is a much harder topic to show children using picture books, but the few I can think of are excellent:

• A Forest by Marc Martin

• Where's the Elephant by Barroux

• The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker

• The Great Kapok Tree  by Lynne Cherry

• Refugees  by David Miller

• Turtle Taxi by Guundie Kuchling

• Window  by Jeannie Baker

• The Tree  by Neal layton

To show students the power of planting trees share one of the excellent picture book biographies about Wangari Maathai planting trees in Kenya.

• Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson

• Wangari's Trees of Peace  by Jeanette Winter

• Planting Peace  by Gwendolyn Hooks

• Mama Miti  by Donna Jo Napoli

• Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevot 

• Planting the trees of Kenya  by Claire Nivola

or something more general o trees like

• Trillions of Trees  by Kurt Cyrus

• Little Sap  by Jan Hughes

• It Starts with a Seed by Laura Knowles