Global desertification: building a science for dryland development.
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.
Reynolds
James F
JF
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and Department of Biology, Post Office Box 90328, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. james.f.reynolds@duke.edu
Smith
D Mark Stafford
DM
Lambin
Eric F
EF
Turner
B L
BL
Mortimore
Michael
M
Batterbury
Simon P J
SP
Downing
Thomas E
TE
Dowlatabadi
Hadi
H
Fernández
Roberto J
RJ
Herrick
Jeffrey E
JE
Huber-Sannwald
Elisabeth
E
Jiang
Hong
H
Leemans
Rik
R
Lynam
Tim
T
Maestre
Fernando T
FT
Ayarza
Miguel
M
Walker
Brian
B
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003889:Desert Climate; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D011640:Public Policy; D012987:Soil
D012987:Soil