Drylands – comprising deserts, grasslands, and woodlands – cover about 41% of Earth’s land surface and are inhabited by more than 2 billion people (about one third of the world’s population). Many of these dryland areas face severe land degradation, in which marginal areas are turned into wastelands and natural ecosystems are altered through destruction of surface vegetation, poor management of water resources, inappropriate land use practices, overuse of fertilizers and biocides, and disposal of domestic and industrial wastes. As a result, dryland populations on average lag far behind the rest of the world on human well-being and development indicators. In the absence of any remedial measures, the situation is likely to get worse over time due to population increase, land cover change, and global climate change.

UNU-INWEH’s programme on drylands assists developing countries in dryland areas to better manage their land resources and to achieve sustainable use of their water and biodiversity resources. This is done through capacity development at various scales, ranging from community-based efforts to national training initiatives. The capacity building efforts are closely interlinked to knowledge management to support national policy development, particularly in relation to poverty-reduction strategies and better integrated natural resource management.

Drylands Archive:

Policy Brief (November, 2008): People in Marginal Drylands (PDF, 3.3 MB)

Policy Brief (June, 2007): Re-thinking Policies to Cope with Desertification (PDF, 1.8 MB)

Joint International Conference, Algiers, Algeria (December, 2006): Desertification and the International Policy Imperative

International Conference, Tunis, Tunisia (June, 2006): Future of Drylands

Report on Global Desertification (June, 2005): Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Desertification Synthesis

Expert Group meets at UNU-INWEH, Hamilton, Canada (August, 2004): Global Report on Desertification

UNU International Conference (May, 2004): Living with Desert