Land decline in Land-Rich Africa

The objective of this study was to identify areas of land degradation in sub‐Saharan Africa as

observed from space by tracking the greenness of the vegetation signal expressed as

Normalize Differenced Vegetation Index (NDVI). A series of additional databases was used,

and, through a step‐wise amalgamation of these, conclusions were drawn about the type of

(agro) ecosystems under threat. The datasets (based on 8x8 km2 pixels) of weather and NDVI

(as a proxy for net primary productivity of the land) were averaged annually from monthly

observations over the last two decades of the 20th century. This is likely to have captured

reduced agricultural productivity as well as loss in native vegetation cover. The logical

framework to analyse and interpret the dynamics of the vegetation cover in sub‐Saharan

Africa (SSA) presented here allows for easy re‐assessment as better of more data become

available.