Asia and the Pacific, for the purposes of this book, encompasses a vast territory extending from Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the south; from the Cook Islands in the east to Kuwait in the west (Map 1). The environmental diversity of Asia and the Pacific is therefore vast, and is contrasted by the region’s coldest and hottest deserts, verdant tropical rainforests, extensive steppe, desert steppe, grassland and rangelands, mountains and plains. It is this great variation in geography, topography and climate that provides the rich and unique diversity found in the region’s ecosystems.

There is great disparity too in the ethnicity of its people’s and the economic status of its nations. The pressures on these rich natural resources and environmental systems have, however, been continuously increasing over the past few decades. Rapid population growth, urbanization, rising economic output and consumptive lifestyles, coupled with an increasing incidence of poverty, have all contributed to the region’s struggle to mitigate desertification and arrest and/or reverse land degradation in all of its forms.