Recurring and increasingly severe droughts are now one of the main factors contributing to the vulnerability of regions, particularly in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. Long considered a one-off climatic hazard, they are now tending to become a structural, long-term and multifaceted constraint, simultaneously affecting agricultural and pastoral systems, the availability and management of water resources, ecological balances, and the social and economic dynamics of regions.
As a result of climate change, droughts are becoming more frequent, intense and prolonged, gradually reducing the resilience of productive systems and testing existing governance models. Beyond short-term production losses, drought acts as a catalyst and accelerator of structural vulnerabilities: land and soil degradation, overexploitation of water resources, excessive specialisation of agricultural systems, the increasing precariousness of family farms, and heightened pressures on natural resources.
