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REVISTA IEEE 5

448 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies N. 5 / 2015 With saline features, it is Africa’s largest wetland area (not counting the lakes in East Africa). It is home to a wealth of biodiversity comprised of mammals, birds and fish, which have resulted in a thriving fish export business, particularly to Nigeria. In 1963, the lake occupied an area of 23,000 km2, but this had fallen to under 2,000 km by the mid-1980s due to a number of factors, but particularly: • The major droughts that affected the Sahel during the 1970s and ‘80s, significantly reducing rainfall during the wet season and causing severe famines. • Overgrazing and the elimination of the plant cover for different reasons affected precipitation by reducing average relative humidity levels. This also facilitates erosion and hinders soil regeneration, which in turn impedes natural revegetation, especially species that require good quality soils. • Irrigation projects with water from tributaries of the lake (in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger), which prevent natural replenishment by breaking the balance between evaporation and compensation. Figure 12: Evolution of Lake Chad.59 In the late 1990s, the level of the lake began to rise, although rainfall had been decreasing between 1900 and 2005, according to the Fourth Assessment Report by 59  Water, a Shared Responsibility, op cit, p 182. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee


REVISTA IEEE 5
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