Overgrazing accelerating soil erosion in northern Mexico

Every year in the world an estimated 20 million hectares of arable land are rendered infertile simply owing to water-induced erosion. It is therefore crucial to understand how these processes arise in order better to protect the layer of a few tens of metres of fertile soil essential for plant growth and therefore for sustaining agriculture. In the North of Mexico, about ten years ago IRD teams studied the erosion phenomenon which affects this region where pastoral activities and tree felling aggravate the process.