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The 1996 Report opens with a fundamental statement: "Human development is the end - economic growth a means." The Report argues that economic growth, if not properly managed, can be jobless, voiceless, ruthless, rootless and futureless, and thus detrimental to human development. The quality of growth is therefore as important as its quantity; for poverty reduction, human development and…

This report describes the extent of soil degradation, its bio-physical and socio-economic causes and macro- and micro-economic impacts. The causes behind the failure of soil conservation projects are analyzed. The book aims to prove that it is not just because land users lack efficient technologies that they do not protect the soil better; the major causes are insufficient participation in…

Desertification or the problem of intense land degradation is an old concept. Through time, historical awareness has been fluctuating with periods of more environmental concern and moments of less attention. The UN Convention on Desertification has brought to a first level of consideration the global dimension of the issues. There is a common link between a wide variety of places that can be…

Desertification has re-emerged as a topic of global significance as a consequence of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. When first addressed over a generation ago, attention was drawn to the compelling, spectacular images of sand dunes engulfing farmlands and parched cattle dying around wells. Research tended to focus on these events as unusual phenomena that involved…

The quiencentary of the Columbian encounter was met with an outpouring of concern about how this event and its repercussions were to be interpreted. Environmental impacts have ranked high among the concerns raised. Current modelling of some environmental changes requires an understanding of changes associated with the encounter. List of content: Part 1:…

This is a story of how a team of dedicated scientists from Japan have sought to come to terms with desert areas in many parts of the world. They have developed many ways of transforming, little by little, areas considered barren and useless, through well-planned technical solutions allied to hard physical work. Starting with the sand dune areas in Japan, the story weaves its way…