Land degradation can have numerous impacts on local communities. These include the direct impacts of loss of income and employment, resulting in deterioration of the material standards of living, and diversion of time from education and social opportunities to production activities to increase labour input and compensate for deterioration in land productivity. There are also indirect impacts in terms of undermining the rural economic and social base, and health impacts from risks of exposure to degraded land, as well as changes to the way of life of local communities engaged in semi-nomadic pastoralism.