THE STATE OF AWARENESS ABOUT THE PHENOMENON OF DESERTIFICATION BY THE INHABITANTS OF THE REGION OF KHOUBANA, M’SILA, ALGERIA

Desertification is one of the main dangers that menace the arid and semi-arid regions. It is considered as one of the most important environmental problems of the 21st century. It is the result of a combination of direct and indirect factors; some of which are linked to the climate and anthropic activities. In fact, out of 238 million acres, 200 millions are located in Saharan zones, 20 million acres are in steppic zones (including the study region) with very fragile soil that is subject to the process of desertification, and almost 18 million acres are mountains, plains, and prays. This study is conducted to know the degree of the awareness of the inhabitants of the region of Khoubana regarding this serious phenomenon. It is a series of surveys with 151 informants, who had been chosen at random in Khoubana, M’cif, and El Houamed. Our findings show that the informants contributed positively to the surveys thanks to the importance of the topic