Most studies of desertification acknowledge the role of human activity in affecting and often initiating the process. That human activity is in response to a variety of decisions on, and systems of, resource management. An understanding of those decisions should therefore help explain the role of human activity in the desertification process-in effect help to explain why resource management in this case seems to be leading to resource deterioration, if not destruction. The aim of this monograph therefore is to provide studies of resource management in four areas where desertification is said to be occurring and to try to document the role of perception of desertification in the decision-making on resource management. In this way it is meant to provide evidence of the methods by which studies of environmental perception can illustrate the human role in the desertification process.

This first chapter provides the context for these studies within the broad research activity in environmental perception, and the final chapter attempts a general summary of the findings from the four studies and suggests specific lessons which might be borne in mind by decisionmakers attempting to mitigate the impact of desertification in the study areas as well as lessons which have a more general relevance.

Contents
1. The context of studies into the perception of desertification
2. Desertification in the dry zone of Sri Lanka M. U. A. Tennakoon
3. Perception of desertification on the southern great plains a preliminary enquiry
4. Perception of desertification in the murray mallee of southern Australia
5. Perception of increasing salinity associated with the irrigation of the murray valley in south Australia
6. Summary and conclusions: the role of perception in the desertification process
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