The eastern region of Seridó, Paraíba, has been characterized in the last years by an intense degradation of the agricultural lands due to the extensive drought periods, caused by ENSO. This paper deals with the evaluation of the environmental degradation of the area, a territory of about 947.81 km². The parameters used to classify the degradation levels were vegetation, topography, soil/geology, ecology, mechanization, agricultural area, population density (including the migration) and cattle raising, that defined four levels of environmental degradation: lower, moderate, serious and very serious. The analysis of these parameters confirmed the gravity of the occurrence of the degradation/desertification processes of the lands. For 44.86% of the studied area the degradation index was classified as serious and for 2.24% very serious. In the areas classified as very serious, the formation of the so called "desertification nucleus", was observed.
environmental degradation; desertification
