The deserts of north Africa are threatening to leap the Mediterranean¹ and creep through Spain, according to government figures made public as part of a national campaign to halt desertification.

　　A third of the country is at risk of being turned into desert as climate change and tourism add to the effects of farming.

　　More than 90% of land bordering the Mediterranean from Almeria in the south to Tarragona in the north is considered to be at high risk. But that figure climbs to almost 100% in Alicante and Murcia.

　　Spain's environment ministry² has announced a ?50m programme to combat³ desertification.

　　Over-grazing and irrigation methods that wash away topsoil were to blame for some of the damage, experts said. Building developments and climate change were doing the rest.

　　Spain builds an estimated 180,000 holiday homes along its coast every year. "We have grown too quickly without protecting areas of nature," Javier Pedraza of Complutense University, Madrid, said this week.