Desertification: On Significance of The Term and Research of The Phenomenon

First elaborations on desertification come from the Renaissance, but the term was used for the first time by Aubréville in 1949. In later years, many significantly varying in meaning definitions were elaborated.

In later periods, researchers’ attention concentrated on different areas. At the turn of the XIX^th century, interest was mainly focused on Asia, later on the peripheries of the Sahara, in recent years on desertification in post-soviet Central Asia, China and Mongolia.