Desertification has intensified in recent decades throughout the world. It is now threatening the future of over 600 million people inhabiting arid and semi-arid lands that cover more than a third of the earth's land area.

This volume, comprising four global reviews and an overview, was prepared as a background document for the delegates to the United Nations Conference on Desertification held in Nairobi from 29 August to 9 September 1977 and examines the interrelationships of desertification with climate, ecological change, population, society and technology.
The volume opens with an overview that synthesizes the four global reviews, which are sectoral and technical in character, and not only elaborate the causes and consequences of desertification but also provide scientific justification for its cure.

Discussing the association of political structures with desertification, the authors point out that both positive and negative consequences flow from government actions. For example, the security, technology, organization and support provided by government to irrigation and run-off systems helps to increase productivity, but often spreads salination, or diverting former grazing land to agricultural use adds to desertification pressures on adjacent rangelands.