The social driving forces of desertification in the high Algerian steppe plains

75 The sedentarization of shepherds at the margins of the desert and the introduction of private land ownership in the high Algerian steppe plains has led to profound lifestyle transformations and increased desertification. Based on policy analysis, field observations and oral surveys with 188 household heads, this paper underlines the social drivers of desertification where short-term economic strategies and political misunderstanding are the key elements. Agro-forestry-pastoral practices are no longer in balance with the local environment. Assembling the puzzle pieces has underlined that political leaders and administrators are only partially familiar with the local geosystem, have implemented multiple unsuccessful measures, and have been unable to sufficiently learn (from their efforts) due to political instability. The paper shows that the sedentarization occurring in this fragile environment with low soil fertility creates rural systems that are less resilient to climate fluctuations, which severely impacts both the environment and the most vulnerable inhabitants.


The social driving forces of desertification in the high Algerian steppe plains Introduction
Desertification is a significant issue in the 21 st century (World Bank, 2002;Ozer and Ozer, 2005;UNCCD, 2015;FAO,1993).It affects about one-sixth of the world's population and one-quarter of its land surface (MEA, 2005).Both physical and anthropogenic factors amplify the phenomenon of desertification.However, while the arid and semi-arid ecosystems have been studied in their structure and function in different regions of the world (Helldén and Tottrup, 2008), the study of the process of desertification remains incomplete because of its complexity and diversity (Liang et al., 2021;Khaldi, 2014;Xu et al., 2011;Schröter et al., 2005;García-Ruiz et al., 2011;Eekhout et al., 2018;Helldén, 2008).Recurrent droughts and low amounts of rainfall combined with pastoralism practices, population increase, overgrazing and socio-economic changes have strengthened desertification (Githu et al., 2022).
The concept of 'desertification' appeared in the 1970s, even if it was effectively used 25 years earlier by Aubréville (1949) to describe the anthropogenic impacts on tropical forests, such as forest fires and logging (Delay et al., 2022).Poverty in the Sahelian regions, caused by the recurrent droughts of the 1970s, was a significant signal for the United Nations Assembly, which highlighted the phenomenon of desertification in series of conferences (1977) (Bruckmann et al., 2022).
The UNCCD (the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification) defines desertification as: "land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities, which encompass both physical and social bio-factors" (UNC- CD, 1994;Bied-Charleton and Burger, 2012).This definition is similar to the definition adopted by the NAIROBI Conference in 1977: "accentuation or extension of the characteristic conditions of deserts; it is a process that leads to a decrease in biological productivity, and consequently a reduction in plant biomass, the useful capacity of the land for livestock, agricultural yields and a deterioration of living conditions for man . ..".The criteria defined at the United Nations Conference on Desertification involve the notion of a "risk of desertification" assessed based on the measure of land vulnerability combined with current and future human and animal pressure.Such criteria lead to considering desertification phenomena as evolutionary, according to changing climatic and human factors.
Nevertheless, this 'official' definition has been widely criticised.Le Houérou (1996) found it "too vague" and defined desertification as "a set of actions that result in a more or less irreversible reduction in vegetation cover leading to the extension of new desert landscapes to areas that did not have the characteristics" (Le Houérou, 1968).Wilson and Juntti (2005) and El Zerey et al. (2009) lamented that the definition of the Earth Summit did not emphasise the political, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions of the phenomenon.However, Lavauden (1927), who studied the degradation of vegetation cover in Tunisia, insisted on its anthropogenic character."Closely linked to human activity, land degradation is one of the consequences of poor development and a major obstacle to the sustainable development of dry areas" (Cornet, 2001).For a long time it was considered a phenomenon of natural origin, but the anthropogenic drivers of desertification are no longer in doubt.
Human practices generated by socio-environmental and legal situations influence landscape dynamics via actions related to uses, which modify the biotic and abiotic processes of agro-forestry-pastoral environments in steppe landscapes (Geist and Lambin, 2004;Reynolds et al., 2007;Weber and Horst, 2011).With the increase in population and food demands, the steppes are under increasing pressure to intensify load rates, leading to overgrazing, land clearing extension, and deforestation (Akbari et al., 2020;Kaz'min, 2016;Le Houérou, 1996;Bensouiah, 2004).
The UNCCD encourages contractors to "adopt an integrated approach to address the physical, biological and socio-economic aspects of desertification and drought processes" (Akhtar-Schuster et al., 2022).In Algeria, the desertification phenomenon is driven by drought and anthropogenic actions, Serge Schmitz

The social driving forces of desertification in the high Algerian steppe plains
including random and food-producing grains,and poor governance of organisations managing and combating desertification (Boussaid et al., 2018;Boukerker et al., 2021).Steppe rangelands remain the most exposed to the phenomenon of degradation.Deforestation, overgrazing, and cultivation of steppes are among the agents that have contributed to this situation; in fact, yields are low, and often equivalent to or less than 4 quintals/ha on predominantly calcareous soils (Arabi et al., 2007).Nevertheless, most of the studies of desertification in Algeria have focused on the description of the phenomena based on remote sensing studies (Ahmed, 2015;Benhizia et al., 2021) or plant inventories (Henni and Mehdadi, 2012;Merdas et al., 2021), rather than exploring the socio-economic drivers.This research aims to fill this gap via policy analysis, intensive field research and interviews with local herders.
While the utilised agricultural area (UAA) represents only 7.4 million hectares or 3% of the national territory of Algeria, the UAA per capita ratio is rapidly declining due to population growth and land degradation (RGA, 2015;Bessaoud et al., 2019).In 1962, this rate was 0.82 hectares per capita; it had decreased to 0.32 in 1989, and to 0.17 in 2020; (Harrane, 2000, World Bank, 2023).Nevertheless, the alfa and mugwort steppes remain the preferred domain of sheep and pastoralists (Pouget, 2008).These immense arid and semi-arid lands cover an area of thirty-six million hectares, where more than 8 million inhabitants live.In 2001, the collective herd reached twenty million heads of sheep (Nedjraoui, 2001) and increased to twenty-eight million in 2017 (FAOStat, 2017).However, since the 1980s, the steppe has been in constant decline.(Slimani and Aidoud, 2004).In addition, further north, 12 million hectares of mountain land are subject to water erosion, causing considerable soil loss and the siltation of dams with a loss in water reserve capacity estimated at 20 million cubic meters per year.According to the General Directorate of Forests, 20 million hectares of land (more than 52% of Algerian land north of the Sahara) are threatened by accelerated desertion in arid and semi-arid bioclimates (DGF, 2007).
In 2001, Nedjraoui (2001) mentioned 600,000 hectares of desertified land in the Algerian steppe zone without the possibility of natural renewal.Compared to the beginning of the 20 th century, when the areas occupied by alfa were around 5 million hectares, at the time of writing alfa covers less than 2.6 million ha and does not produce more than 10,000 tons per year (Boudy, 1950;FAO., 2010;FaoStat., 2023) Our contribution aims to scrutinise the socio-environmental co-evolution (Kallis, 2007) of the steppes around Djelfa in Algeria to underline the diversity of factors, including their diverse spatial levels.Besides local (e.g.agro-pastoral practices, demography) and global (e.g.global warming) factors, national and regional governance should be examined and added to the list of the most influential drivers of desertification.Significantly, successive land reforms have led to the cessation of winter and summer transhumance (Achaba and Azzaba) and forced sedentary nomads to adopt a new way of life and exploitation of their environment (Boukhobza, 1982;Trautmann, 1989;Hounet, 2013;Daoudi et al., 2015).This research, based on a local study, aims to understand the complexity of a steppe system affected by desertification and to articulate :(1) the ways of life, in other words, the ways of being, building, and cultivating (Heidegger, 1948;Schmitz, 2012) in these semi-arid environments located on the margins of the desert; (2) the colonial and later Algerian policies of rural development and development of the territory; and (3) land degradation.Regarding the recent nomads' sedentarization, how have agro-pastoral practices adapted?How do these practices expose new lands to desertification?Based on a survey of 188 heads of agro-pastoralist households in the Wilaya of Djelfa, the article presents the adaptations of living patterns that followed the land reforms and sedentarization of nomads.It shows that sedentarization in low-productive environments produces systems that are much less able to adapt to frequent climatic hazards and leads to disastrous situations both for the environment and the most vulnerable people in the system.

The study area
The Algerian steppe forms a vast region located south of the Tell Atlas; it is over 1,000 km long and 300 km wide in the west and centre, and narrows to less than 150 km wide in the east.The steppe ecosystem is delimited to the north by the isohyet of the 400 mm of average annual precipitation in the southern piedmont of the Tell Atlas and to the south by the isohyet of 100 mm along the Saharan Atlas (Khaldi, 2014) The research was conducted in the OuledsNaïl rangelands in the Saharan Atlas, north of Djelfa.The Wilaya of Djelfa (see Fig. 1) lies at the center of northern Algeria, south of the Tell Atlas.Its provincial capital, Djelfa, is 300 kilometres south of Algiers.This part of the territory of 32,000 km² represents 1.36% of the country's total surface area and houses a population of 1,092,000 inhabitants (RGPH, 2008), currently spread over 36 municipalities.The steppes represent 85% of the total area of Wilaya.The entire herd has about 4 million heads of sheep (DPAT, 2009).
The Wilaya has four distinct landscapes from north to south.In the north, the plains of Aïn Oussera are a relatively flat area between 650 and 850 m altitude.South of these plains, we encounter the depression of the Chotts, Zahrez Gharbi and Zahrez Chergui, the Ouled Naïl mountain range (the backbone of the Saharan Atlas), and further south, the desert plateau which succeeds the foothills of the Saharan Atlas (Mezrag, 2018) The climate is of the continental Mediterranean type, characterised by a cold winter and a dry period of seven months.The average rainfall is 326 mm per year (Seltzer, 1946;Hirche et al., 2007;Boussaid et al., 2012) but has decreased to an average of 275 mm per year in the last three decades (ONM, 2022); rainfall generally occurs in the form of thunderstorms and torrential rains, sometimes mixed with hail; the number of rainy days varies between 37 and 80 per year, the average (Piche) evaporation exceeds 1,800 mm/year (Bouteldjaoui et al., 2012).The average annual temperature is generally above 20°C.The minimum temperature in the coldest month is 1.9°C, while the maximum temperature in the hottest months can exceed 37°C (ONM, 2010).The prevailing winds are mainly from the west and northwest in winter and the southwest in summer.The average wind speed is 2.7 m/s; winds are sometimes violent due to the number of open spaces without physical obstacles (Merzouk, 1999).
The soils are defined by limestone agglomeration and low organic matter content.These soils are generally shallow.However, some soils located in depressions are relatively deep and rich (Kadik, 1987).The vegetation consists mainly of patches of grasses that do not entirely cover the ground, such as Alfa (Stipatenacissima) and White absinthe (Artemisia herba alba).These perennial grasses occupy a large part of the territory, especially in the south.The land cover of open forests consists mainly of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), Holm oak (Quercus ilex) and Phoenicia juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) (Djeddaoui et al., 2017).This area, located in the heart of the steppe with the appearance of a natural geographical entity, is representative of the steppe.However, it also corresponds to a human entity.Most of the population feels a sense of belonging to the Ouled Naïl tribe, composed mainly of formerly nomadic shepherds.

Methods
Before analysing the current agro-pastoral practices, we needed to explore the political history of Algerian steppes to consider nomad people's ancestral rights, agricultural development, and efforts to combat desertification.
We visited the area several times over the last decade to examine the evolution of the landscape and agro-pastoral practices, and analysed the desertification sensitivity map developed in 2010 by the Algerian Spatial Agency and the General Directorate of Forests, based on Thematic Mappers Landsat 5 data (ASAL, 2001;ASAL, 2010;Boulahouat and Naert, 1996;HCDS, 2012;Oussedik et al., 2003;Salamani et al., 2013).
We were able to complement the study on the social drivers thanks to a socio-economic survey conducted in the spring of 2015 on agro-forestry-pastoral practices and their impacts on desertification mitigation.We interviewed 188 household heads and sedentary agro-pastoralists in their home.The sample was constructed based on stratified random sampling that considers the diversity of the surrounding vegetation.The notion of the 'head of the household' still makes sense in the tribal societies of the Algerian steppes, where the patriarchal family persists (Addi, 2005).The head of the household is the reference person, the elder who rules the life of all family members and the agro-forestry-pastoral HRVATSKI GEOGRAFSKI GLASNIK 84/2, 75−91 (2022.)activities.It would have been offensive to question another family member on issues that deal with the activity of the entire family clan.Similarly, it was not conceivable for a man to interview a woman, which makes it difficult to gain information regarding women's agroforestry practices or even to know how many wives are present within a given household.When we approached a house, we had to honk to give time for the women to withdraw.
The surveys included the following themes: type of housing, energy use, and agro-pastoralism practices, including the area sown, the nature of crops, the tools used for cultivation, the legal status of the land, the water resources, the composition of the herd and its natural feeding schedule in the diverse rangelands, and additional fodder supply.
Due to the fear of having to declare their capital to the State and to allow respondents to answer in a relaxed fashion, all the variables collected are qualitative: areas of land sown (5 classes), types of water supply (4 types), building materials (4 types), energy sources (3 types), composition of the sheep and goat livestock (2 species and three classes), and finally food supplements (3 types).We adopted the grids established by the 1968 Nomadism Survey (Chellig, 1989), which uses "a defined number of sheep animals to give an accurate picture of the distribution of livestock among owners."The critical masses of 10, 50, 100, and 500 heads of sheep and/or goats characterise the economic and social features of household heads (Chellig, 2005).Agro-pastoralists with less than 50 heads of livestock are mainly small owners or shepherds; those with up to 500 head of livestock are average owners, and those with more than 500 animals are large owners.For this study, we considered three classes: less than 20, between 20 and 50, and more than 50.

Sedentarization and land rights
The steppes regions' current socio-economic and political changes stem from a historical dynamic that has never been adequately investigated or assessed.Sedentarization and the extension of crops to the detriment of grazing lands result from natural and political constraints.As Bourdieu (1958) stated, "This society has known a deep decline: the invading nomadism from a previous era up to 1830 has given way to a limited, regulated and weakened nomadism".For centuries, nomadic tribes exploited the Algerian steppes and lived from transhumance stock farming of small ruminant animals.However, the modern state considers nomad people problematic, for security and control reasons as well as the intent to improve general living standards.
It started with the Sénatus-Consulte (1863) and the Warnier Law (1873), which led to the sedentarization of nomads and the erosion of socio-territorial links between tribes (Bernard, 1930;Sainte-Marie, 1975;Lahmar, 1994).In 1923, summer transhumance (Achaba) was placed under the supervision of the municipalities before being vigorously legislated in 1927: "The tribes had to obtain administrative permission to move and to occupy stubble" (Couderc, 1975).In addition, concessions of alfa steppes to industry (mainly the paper industry) have come at the expense of livestock interests (Marion, 1958, Entreprise scoloniales, 2017).The appropriation of herding land by settlers and the colonial administration has had a disastrous effect on the valorisation of the steppes (Boukhobza, 1982;Hadeid et al., 2015).The complementarity between north and south rangeland gradually disappeared.The herds had to stay yearround in the south, causing severe ecological degradation to an environment weakened by the recurrent droughts of 1930 and 1940.This situation dramatically affected the total Algerian herd from 1876 to 1954, which shrank from 9 million heads to 4 million (Trautmann, 1989;Chellig, 2005;Bencherif, 2013).

The social driving forces of desertification in the high Algerian steppe plains
Many authors (Sari, 1975;Boukhobza, 1976;Côte, 1993), have emphasised that, at the dawn of the French colonisation, there was a delicate balance between the population, production, and social organisation, whereas during the colonial period, agriculture underwent significant political, legal, economic and social changes.The French period disrupted local nomad society by expropriating lands and creating forested reserves.From 1962 until 1986, the Algerian State implemented an agrarian reform: its objectives were social, economic, and ecological.It promoted Socialist Agricultural Cooperatives and implemented the Green Barrier to contain desertification (Adair, 1983).This reform also included the enactment of the Code Pastoral (HCDS, 1998), which limited the amount of livestock held by each family, abolished absentee livestock farming, generalised herders' cooperatives, prohibited ploughing in the steppe, and reduced the rangelands (Ordinance 75/43 of 17 June 1975) (Abaab et al., 1995;Ahmed, 2011).Nevertheless, this code was rejected by pastoralist tribes, primarily because of the transformation of the status of the Arch lands (tribal lands) into the private property of the state (Benmoussa, 2013).This ambivalence between the new pastoral code and tribal rules led to conflicts of interest between large and small breeders, overuse of steppe resources, and excessive speculation with large herds to capture maximum state subsidies and tax exemptions (Bedrani, 1992).
Later, until 1990, a liberalisation and agricultural restructuring policy aimed to break the socialist policy.Although the civil war slowed down this policy, it created collective and individual farms and ownership of agricultural land (Amichi et al., 2011).In 1983, the Law of Accession to Land Ownership (APFA) authorised full (private) ownership of public land.These reforms paved the way for the privatisation of agriculture but did not liberalise the land market.In 1997, the State changed the conditions of land allocation by entrusting the right of exploitation to the farmer for 99 years and trying to empower local populations regarding land distribution.These repetitive legislation changes concerning the allocation of the steppe broke the traditional links between the herders and the rangeland.They led to the privatisation or the afforestation of former community lands.The new legislation also encouraged ownership of an increasing share of the rangelands because this practice is construed as evidence of ownership.These policies favouring extensive cultivation of grains, including on unsuitable lands, have increased anthropogenic pressure (Houyou et al., 2014).
Viewed as progress, the sedentarization of the agro-pastoralist tribes led to land fragmentation, steppe overuse, deforestation, and soil degradation (see Fig. 2).Moreover, the population and sheep flock have tripled since 1980, going from 8 to 40 sheep/ha.

Agricultural supports
The state's impact on the steppe also includes how the state has supported farmers to be more productive, climatic crises notwithstanding.The significant droughts in the seventies and eighties were combated by a policy of massive imports of livestock feed (barley especially) and sales to livestock farmers at low prices.This state support had controversial results, as the size of the herd throughout the steppe would jump from 9 million heads in 1972 to 16 million in 1991 (Nedjraoui, 2001).As a result, the herds of the Wilayah of Djelfa have experienced significant growth.From 700,000 heads between 1929 and 1954 (Dermenghem, 1956), to 1 million heads in 1978 (transhumant and sedentary) (Smail, 1991), 2 million in 1997, and over 3 million in 2009(DSA, 2009).Currently, this number is approaching 4 million heads, representing one-fifth of the national herd (Kanoun et al., 2016).Yet, according to the National Territorial Development Scheme (SNAT 2007, p. 55), the Algerian "steppe, in its current state, can only support 4 million head, given the possibilities of natural regeneration".As a result, the pastoral load has evolved from a sheep equivalent of 4 ha in 1968 to a sheep equivalent of 0.78 ha in 2009, causing excessive grazing; the vegetation composed of esparto and artemisia has regressed gradually, causing the widespread appearance of the calcareous crust (FAO, 2010) In 2000, Algeria launched the National Plan for Agricultural and Rural Development (PNDAR), which supports agricultural production by encouraging farmers to invest.This support is carried out with the state's financial participation from funds and investment credits (Cherrad, 2012).The financing model does not prioritise one cultivation system.However, programs are set according to each area (Hadibi et al., 2009).Concerning the Wilaya of Djelfa, despite numerous achievements financed by the Fund to Combat Desertification, the Protection of Rangelands and Steppes, and the Rural Development fund and land development, the achievements were far from the objectives: only 3 million hectares of fencing, 300,000 ha of pastoral plantations and the multiplication of water points (Nedjraoui and Bédrani, 2008).HCSD has not yet been able to implement a comprehensive strategy for the sustainable development of steppe areas, due to the difficulties of grasping the steppe systems from a holistic point of view and the effort required to understand the complex socio-environmental co-evolution.
The method of financing these programs remains essentially public in the form of subsidies and is closely dependent on state oil revenue.However, this enthusiasm has gradually faded: first, because of the low average annual growth in agricultural production and the increasingly high food costs, and second, because of the oil and security crises.

Combating desertification
Nonetheless, besides the concern of land ownership and agriculture development, the State tried to stabilise the dunes with mechanical and plantation methods (Makhlouf, 1993;Akkouche et al., 2017) and planted a forest-the green dam-to contain the desert (Nedjraoui and Bédrani, 2008;Martinez-Valderrrama et al., 2018).Launched in 1974, the 'green dam' aimed to reforest 3 million hectares in the band between 200 and 300 mm of annual rainfall to slow down the process of desertification and restore the ecological balance.However, the project was diverted from its primary target (the junction of the forest massifs of the Saharan Atlas) and transferred to rich alfa steppes, thus contributing to degradation from deep ploughing and inadequate plantations (Bensaïd, 1995;Halimaet al., 2006).Spread over 1,000,000 ha in the Djelfa region, only a few islets remain populated by gnarled trees among vast decertified areas.Indeed, these projects and plantations neglected agro-pastoral practices and their interaction with rangelands (Hadeid, 2008).Due to the anthropogenic impacts accompanying population and livestock increase, projected to reach two million inhabitants and five million sheep heads by 2030, we will likely witness the degradation of Aleppo pine plantations and the disappearance of the green dam project in the Wilaya of Djelfa (Benhizia et al., 2021).
The desertification sensitivity map (see Fig. 3) distinguishes five sensitivity levels ranging from the forest and matorral areas in the Djebels area, to desertified areas that already concern 14% of the Wilaya of Djelfa.Roughly 19% of the land is susceptible to desertification.These areas mainly concern land occupied by degraded psammo-halophilic vegetation near the dune ridge, the depression of the Zahrez el Gharbi, or the Chott.The millions of hectares of alfa and mugwort steppes, 43% of the total area, are less sensitive to desertification but require attention and monitoring due to the increasing size of the herd and the multiplication of sown areas.

The agro-pastoral practices
The socio-economic survey conducted in the spring of 2015 on agro-forestry-pastoral practices allows us to point out how the agro-pastoralism population accommodates this changing natural and political environment.
The ancestral nomads, turned into sedentary agro-pastoralists, have established their houses near water points where the pressure on the environment is significant due, inter alia, to repeated trampling by livestock.Around 60% of the households interviewed collected surrounding firewood for cooking and heating.Many buildings used varied local materials such as mud, wood, and palm leaves to replace the mainly traditional tents, and one-quarter of the interviewed households used cement.In most cases, water and grazing are usually insufficient for the family and the herd's needs, which requires the adoption of new practices.
During field visits, we observed the multiplication of the sown areas, including on the Chott (Salt Lake).These practices considerably impact the ecosystems because the few endogenic plants have been destroyed to allow grain cropping, which, in practice, offers a meagre yield and can be sustained for only a few years.
Sedentarization has redistributed agro-forestry-pastoral practices: the semi-stabling of herds (a portion of the feed is subsidized by the state), harvest of fodder units from smaller temporary fields, and mobilisation of aquifer resources for land appropriation.Thus, new ways of living in a historically sparsely-populated area are generating new relationships between man and the natural environment that pose dangers to an environment in advanced degradation.
Most of household heads in our study area have modest herds; 39% of the household heads surveyed had a sheep herd of more than 50 head, while 45% of household heads had less than 20 sheep.Regarding goats, 32% of household headshad a herd of fewer than 20 heads, while only four household heads interviewed had more than 50 heads (Tab.1).Nearly 60% and 88% of the agro-pastoralists in the sample have a herd, of sheep or goats respectively, of less than 50 heads (Tab.1).This means that most of the household heads in our study area are small shepherds.The ownership nature of the Ouleds Naïl rangelands remains primarily of the public domain status, with 51% of households of the sample.In the second category, the private domain status, i.e. formerly land arch (Tribal), predominates with 39% of households.If we include the 10% of household heads who own private lands, half of the households valorize privatized lands.These lands represent 75,000 haof the studied territory.
The interviews showed herds belonging to people living in town who maintain their rights to the rangelands and contribute to the overuse of resources.These absent herders pay other people to take care of their herds which are usually bigger than those belonging to herders still living in the steppes.
Most households use ploughs with mechanical traction, and household heads practice a combination of grain farming (wheat and barley).Moreover, 44% of the household heads interviewed have tiny sown areas, less than five hectares.These small areas are located mainly in the forest environment, the dune ridge, and the Chott.In contrast, 23% of heads of households cultivate the most prominent areas (those greater than 20 ha), usually in steppe environments.These practices' evolution has led to a marginalization of the smaller herders who do not own lands personally and need to occupy forest or the less valuable steppes near the Chott and the dunes.Nonetheless, both categories of household head have an increasing impact on land degradation: the wealthier people increase their livestock thanks to water and fodder exportation, and the poor households overuse marginalized areas that should be grazed sparingly.Multiple correspondence analysis (see Fig. 4) of feeding systems and livestock size identified two dimensions that represent the sample's variability very well.The first dimension is related to the size of the herd, while the second differentiates herds of sheep and goats.In the fourth quadrant (lower right), we find the smallest farmers who do not have the need or the means to diversify their fodder sources.The third quadrant (lower left) shows medium-sized sheep herds that graze in steppes at the end of winter, frequent the forest in other seasons, and receive supplementation all year round.The fourth quadrant (upper left) isolates the larger sheep farmers.They benefit from grazing in steppes all year round while also using forest areas and buying additional fodder for autumn and winter.On the other hand, the large herds of goats graze indifferently in steppe and forest areas and do not require the purchase of fodder.
Most heads of households (68%) practice annual supplementation with barley seed (Tab.1).This practice further taxes the sustainability of the rural systems because herders increasingly import water.If the herd does not travel to water and fodder, modern means of transport bring them in, upsetting the steppe system more.The sample's primary water source for 63% of households is a tanker truck or towed tank.The second mode of water supply concerns pumped tubular wells and uncovered dug wells, used by 32% of households (Tab.1).

Discussion and Conclusion
The historical background indicates that, although the steppe is a limited resource, various policies paid little attention to the fragile ecosystems and how they should be managed for and with the agro-pastoralist inhabitants.On the one hand, the priorities were an increase of agricultural productivity, in a very short-term perspective, and stopping the 'progression' of the desert.Since the start of sedentarization, the result has been an ongoing tragedy leading to the destruction of the steppes, herds, and inhabitants.Unsuitable strategies, such as using water trucks, purchasing fodder, and crop cultivation, have also increased land degradation and social inequalities.
The amplification of these practices in an arid landscape contributes to the intensification of desertification (Nedjraoui, 2001;Hadeid, 2008).Due to its bioclimatic characteristics, the steppe does not allow dense settlement.Modes of coexistence that ensure the lifestyle of the different family clans while maintaining a certain ecological balance are required (Hadeid et al., 2015).The current overuse of the Algerian steppe is ecologically unsustainable (Khaldi, 2014) and leads to major socio-economic concerns (Nedjraoui and Bédrani, 2008;Bisaro et al., 2014;Akbari et al., 2020).
Numerous studies have stressed the importance of good governance in the fight against desertification and the risks associated with establishing a unified standardisation system in the approach to the phenomenon (Ferreira et al., 2021).In addition, the survey pointed out that current ways of life are, on the one hand, strongly influenced by the centuries-old practices of nomadic tribes, while the conditions of use and nutritional qualities of steppe environments have fundamentally changed, and are not in step with agricultural and social policies intended to meet critical challenges at the national level (e.g.food sovereignty, rural exodus, unemployment) that are not adapted to the socio-economic, cultural, and environmental situation of the studied semi-arid area (Boussaid et al., 2018).Assembling the puzzle pieces of desertification in the high Algerian steppes requires underlining that political leaders and administrations with little experience with the local geosystem have enacted a series of unsuccessful measures and never got the time to learn from their policies' shortcomings due to political instability.
State policies dedicated to steppe areas and the fight against desertification have resulted in resounding failures and results contrary to those sought.Whether technical, financial or regulatory, the state's interventions have neglected the human element's importance and eradicated traditional ways of life under the pretext of modernisation and efficiency.Despite some relative successes (prohibitions, pastoral The social driving forces of desertification in the high Algerian steppe plains 87 plantations, a program of significant works, etc.), the degradation of the environment has only increased, condemning the impoverished indigenous populations to urban exile or sedentarization, which are detrimental to the surrounding natural environments.
It is the opinion of the authors that political and administrative officials should examine some practical ideas with the inclusion of local people, to better assess their potential and difficulties regarding implementation.Of course, it is not easy to reinstate nomadism, but more transversal and bottom-up governance of the steppes can help better use and share the resources.This would require a certain level of political stability.Such local governance should, for instance, decide if absent shepherds should be banned or regulated, where and when cultivations are suitable, how to manage the issue of water importation, and how to diversify the rural economy considering the weight of tradition.

Fig
Fig. 1 Situation map of the Wilaya of Djelfar

Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Illustration of the different modes of land degradation in the Wilaya of Djelfa 1: Type of habitat in the dune belt.2: Sheep herd of a small pastoralist.3: Firewood from retamaretam.4: Illicit cultivation of the soil.5&6: Illicit logging in an Aleppo pine forest for construction.7&8: View of the degraded green dam.

Fig
Fig. 3 Desertification Sensitivity Map of the Wilaya of Djelfay