Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 316; no. 5826; pp. 847 - 851
• Main Authors: Reynolds, James F, Smith, D. Mark Stafford, Lambin, Eric F, Turner, B.L. II, Mortimore, Michael, Batterbury, Simon P.J, Downing, Thomas E, Dowlatabadi, Hadi, Fernández, Roberto J, Herrick, Jeffrey E, Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth, Jiang, Hong, Leemans, Rik, Lynam, Tim, Maestre, Fernando T, Ayarza, Miguel, Walker, Brian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 11.05.2007; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: africa; Agricultural management; Animals; Arid zones; Biodiversity; challenges; commons; Desert Climate; Desertification; Deserts; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Ecological sustainability; Ecology; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environment; Environmental policy; Exact sciences and technology; feedbacks; Humans; knowledge; Land degradation; Land development; lessons; Pollution, environment geology; Poverty; Public Policy; Review; Socioeconomics; Soil; sustainability; Sustainable agriculture; systems; vulnerability; desertification; climate modification; management; global change; ecosystems; degradation; global; policy
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1131634

In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent lessons about the functioning of dryland ecosystems and the livelihood systems of their human residents and introduce a new synthetic framework, the Drylands Development Paradigm (DDP). The DDP, supported by a growing and well-documented set of tools for policy and management action, helps navigate the inherent complexity of desertification and dryland development, identifying and synthesizing those factors important to research, management, and policy communities.