This paper deals about an attempt to evaluate the different policies against desertification carried out during a twenty five year period (1978-2003) in the eight municipalities which compound the river Guadalentín catchment (Murcia, Spain). The approach is based on DEA and the European Environmental Agency indicator studies, the former to measure the efficiency and the second to select the best environmental indicators. The analysis has been reiterated with three different sets of outputs related to the different levels and aspects of the desertification process- from the merely soil losses to the overall desertification process in which population losses are considered. As a result a set of efficiency indexes has been obtained for each municipality, which show clearly the contribution of each action against desertification. These results are very valuable to establish future long term desertification policies in similar territories
