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The drylands of the world cover approximately 40 percent of the earth’s land surface and are a direct source of livelihood for about one billion people, especially in developing countries. However, nearly all drylands are at risk of land degradation as a result of climate change, increasing human population, land over-use and poverty. This represents a threat to the food security and survival of…

In order to provide water security in the twenty-first century, there is universal agreement that a continuation of current policies and extrapolation of trends is not an option. Also clear is that from both water supply and development perspectives, the world's arid and semi-arid regions are those currently and potentially experiencing the highest water stresses. One third of the world's land…

Desertification is an evironmental phenomenon that has intrigued scientists over the years. It ravages about one-third of the landmass of Africa, about a quarter of Australia and occupies a significant portion of the Americas and Asia. Various in-depth studies on desertification have been carried out in the field. The authors experiences across the Sahara Desert are…

The world faces numerous environmental trends of disruption and decline such as rising temperatures, falling water tables, shrinking forests, melting glaciers, collapsing fisheries, and rising sea levels. In Plan B, Lester R. Brown notes that in ignoring nature's deadlines for dealing with these environmental issues we risk the disruption of economic progress. In addition to these…

The overall goal of this book is to increase the size of and more widely disseminate the "portfolio" of research and other works aimed at protecting and sustainably utilizing biodiversity of global significance in arid and semiarid areas in developing nations. Specifically, the book focuses on best practices and lessons learnt for science, for public policy and management, for increasing the…

Desertification, the process of converting productive land to wasteland through overuse and mismanagement, is unfortunately all too common. Anything that removes protective grass or trees leaves soil vulnerable to wind and water erosion. In the early stages of desertification, the finer particles of soil are removed by the wind, creating the dust storms described earlier. Once the fine particles…