Pastoralism itself is argued to enhance devegetation and regime shifts in unbalanced ecosystems, contributing to desertification.

Evidence

Humans as Agents in the Termination of the African Humid Period (Frontiers in Earth Science)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Desertification forced ancient humans to domesticate cattle as a food resource. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 162

Related

• Pastoralism spread across the Sahara while it was still well-watered, and may have delayed desertification. (similarity 0.85)
• Using a climate-vegetation model, pastoralism in fact likely slowed the deterioration of orbitally-driven climate change. (similarity 0.84)
• The transition to desert would have happened about 500 years earlier without the influence of hunter-gatherers and cattle-herders. (similarity 0.83)
• Pastoralism blossomed in the Sahara from around 1000 years before collapse; humans may have held back the Sahara desert by around 500 years. (similarity 0.83)
• Around 4000 BP a climate change leading to desertification of the Sahara forced cattle and pastoralists southward. (similarity 0.81)
• Increasing human population and sustainable pastoralism did not accelerate—and may even have delayed—the decline of the Green Sahara. (similarity 0.80)
• Desertification forced ancient humans to domesticate cattle as a food resource. (similarity 0.79)