The Future of Arid Lands Revisited

UNESCO commemorated its sixtieth anniversary in 2005. To celebrate the importance and relevance of science at UNESCO a publication entitled Sixty Years of Science at UNESCO: 1945–2005 was launched in 2006, which offers an insight into the organization’s commitment towards and endeavors in science from the past through to the present day. The Future of Arid Lands, edited by Gilbert White and published in 1956, comprised papers delivered at the "International Arid Lands Meetings" held in New Mexico in 1955. At these meetings, sponsored by UNESCO and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, experts considered the major issues then confronting the world’s arid lands and developed a research agenda to address these issues. The Future of Arid Lands – Revisited, commissioned by UNESCO in 2005, reexamines this earlier work. Written by researchers from the University of Arizona, this volume first looks at the state of science in 1956 and attendant contemporary views of arid lands development. It then considers how scientific understanding of the processes governing arid lands has since evolved, before extracting lessons from these comparisons that might guide current and future arid land managers and speculating on what the future might hold for arid lands. Reflecting the shift in drylands thinking from a piecemeal or a ‘magic bullet’ approach to a systems-based approach that considers people as integral to solving problems, this volume will appeal not just to land managers, but to everyone involved in environmental issues who wishes to gain a better understanding of the state of arid lands science today. UNESCO commemorated its sixtieth anniversary in 2005. It was a year for refl- tion – a time to look back on the progress made and the achievements accomplished over the last 60 years. To celebrate the importance and relevance of science at UNESCO a publication entitled Sixty Years of Science at UNESCO: 1945–2005 was launched in 2006, which offers an insight into the organization’s commitment towards and endeavors in science from the past through to the present day. Within the United Nations System, UNESCO has one of the longest traditions in addressing dryland problems from a scientific point of view. As it happened, arid zones were precisely at the centre of UNESCO’s earliest efforts at international scientific collaboration in the study of natural resources. The first international research program dealing with these zones was launched back in 1951 under the direction of an International Advisory Committee. It was continued until 1964, after being raised to the status of a Major Project of the Organization in 1957. This Major Project was a pioneer program in many respects. One of its merits, and not the least, was that it blazed a trail in its interdisciplinary approach to the study of natural resources and its holistic view of the problems of arid and semiarid zones.