The Sahara is expanding southwards into an area called the Sahel. The process is called desertification or desertization. The following are quotes from the Encyclopedia Britannica Online (April 22, 2005): "Public awareness of desertification increased during the severe drought in the Sahel in Africa (1968–73), a drought that accelerated the southward movement of the Sahara desert." "The Sahel, which borders the southern fringe of the Sahara in Africa, is extremely prone to drought. Persistent drought conditions, coupled with substantial population growth in the region (an increase of more than 30 percent since the early 1950s) and a doubling of the livestock herd, have resulted in a gradual desertification of the Sahel."

It may be shrinking. Here's a report from 2002. It is important to understand where the previous 2005 Enc. Brit. article is getting it's info from and though it is dated after 2002, it may be based on older data as many Encyclopedia Britanica articles date back sometimes over 6 years or more. Africa's deserts are in "spectacular" retreat 19:00 18 September 2002 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. by Fred Pearce http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2811 Africa's deserts are in "spectacular" retreat --------------------------------------------- Vegetation is starting to conquer the dunes The southern Saharan desert is in retreat, making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa. Burkina Faso, one of the West African countries devastated by drought and advancing deserts 20 years ago, is growing so much greener than families who fled to wetter coastal regions are starting to go home. New research confirming this remarkable environmental turnaround is to be presented to Burkina Faso's ministers and international aid agencies in November. And it is not just Burkina Faso. New Scientist has learned that a separate analysis of satellite images completed this summer reveals that dunes are retreating right across the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Vegetation is ousting sand across a swathe of land stretching from Mauritania on the shores of the Atlantic to Eritrea 6000 kilometres away on the Red Sea coast. Nor is it just a short-term trend. Analysts say the gradual greening has been happening since the mid-1980s, though has gone largely unnoticed. Only now is the evidence being pieced together. Firewood and grassland Aerial photographs taken in June show "quite spectacular regeneration of vegetation", in northern Burkina Faso, according to Chris Reij of the Free University, Amsterdam. There are more trees for firewood and more grassland for livestock. And a survey among farmers shows a 70 per cent increase in yields of local cereals such as sorghum and millet in one province in recent years. The survey, which Reij is collating, was paid for by Dutch, German and American overseas aid agencies. Meanwhile, Kjeld Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen has been looking in detail at sand dunes in the same area. Once they seemed to be marching south. But since the 1980s, he says, there has been a "steady reduction in bare ground" with "vegetation cover, including bushes and trees, on the increase on the dunes". Rising rainfall Desertification is still often viewed as an irreversible process triggered by a deadly combination of declining rainfall and destructive farming methods. In August, the UN Environment Programme told the World Summit in Johannesburg that over 45 per cent of Africa is in the grip of desertification, with the Sahel worst affected. But a team of geographers from Britain, Sweden and Denmark has spent the summer re-examining archive satellite images taken across the Sahel. Andrew Warren of University College London told New Scientist that the unpublished analysis shows that "vegetation seems to have increased significantly" in the past 15 years, with major regrowth in southern Mauritania, northern Burkina Faso, north-western Niger, central Chad, much of Sudan and parts of Eritrea. But there is confusion over why the Sahel is becoming green. Rasmussen believes the main reason is increased rainfall since the great droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s. But farmers have also been adopting better methods of keeping soil and water on their land.

According to http://www.africaguide.com/facts.htm The Sahara Desert alone is expanding southwards at an average of 0.8 km (½ mile) a month.

Growing. "The Sahara is expanding southwards, engulfing degraded grasslands, at a rate of 30 miles every year." http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/desert.htm

it is shrinking 1.5 miles every 2 days

"It has been reported that the Sahara is expanding south by as much as 30 miles (48 km) per year, overwhelming degraded grasslands, taking over the Sahel, the dry tropical savanna that has defined the Sahara's southern limit. Global warming and poor farming methods have been given as possible causes. The spreading of deserts is known as "desertification," and the phenomenon is occurring in other desert areas worldwide." "During the last glacial period, the Sahara was even bigger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries." "By around 3400 BC, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, leading to the gradual rather than abrupt desertification of the Sahara. The Sahara is currently as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. These conditions are responsible for what has been called the Sahara Pump Theory." "The southern boundary of the Sahara, as measured by rainfall, was observed to both advance and retreat between 1980 and 1990. As a result of drought in the Sahel, the southern boundary showed an overall southward movement of 130 kilometres (81 mi) during that period. Deforestation has also caused the Sahara to advance southward in recent years, as trees and bushes continue to be used as fuel source." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara Further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_pump_theory