In 1960 UNESCO marked the end of its major arid lands project with a conference in Paris. Until then the nature of arid lands and the problems of their residents has not been addressed in such a comprehensive manner. Later the landmark United Nations Conference On Desertification (UNCOD) held in Nairobi in 1977 capped the largest and most recent interest in the arid zones.

These papers present the efforts of scientists addressing the problems and opportunities presented by the arid lands in the worldduring the International Research and Development Conference held in Tuscon, Arizona, USA 20-25 October ,1985.