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Drylands & desertification: promoting sustainable
land and water management
Drylands are particularly vulnerable due to climatic variability and
human pressures. Deterioration of soil and plant cover has adversely
affected 70% of the world's drylands. Moreover, the countries and people
most affected by desertification are often those with the least resources.
Yet it is possible to combat desertification by rehabilitating degraded
drylands.
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International UNESCO-MAB workshop "Ensuring the
Future of Drylands - Towards Implementing the MAB Agenda for
a Sustainable Future of Drylands", 12 - 15 November 2007,
Jodhpur, India. The workshop identified specific MAB research
priorities for Asian and adjacent dryland context, based on
the results of the UNESCO international scientific conference
on "The Future of Drylands". Participants from 12 countries
adopted the "Jodhpur Declaration" which will facilitate international
cooperation on drylands. See Declaration,
and the workshop
website which contains the workshop's power point presentations.
Contact: Thomas Schaaf,
MAB Secretariat and/or Ram
Boojh, UNESCO-New Delhi Office.
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Project "Sustainable
Management of Marginal Drylands (SUMAMAD)": sharing
research results and building capacities
Using science, this project involves nine countries and research
teams in northern Africa, Asia and Europe. It focuses on rehabilitating
degraded lands and managing water resources by combining traditional
knowledge and modern technologies, building capacities and creating
networking. More |
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The Future of Drylands conference (Tunis, 19-21 June
2006).
Organized by UNESCO in collaboration with over 20 other organizations,
this conference brought together some 400 participants from
all world regions to take stock of some 50 years of drylands
research and to identify future research priorities for sustainable
dryland development. More
The conference was one of the major events of the 2006 "United
Nations International Year of Deserts and Desertification".
More
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Traditional Knowledge and Modern Technology for the Sustainable
Management of Dryland Ecosystems (Elista, Republic of
Kalmykia, 23-27 June 2004)
One of the main objectives of the workshop was to explore
the extent of traditional method as a complement to existing
modern technologies to assist dryland biosphere reserves in
the rehabilitation of degraded areas in their transitional
and buffer zones.
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Education Kit on Combating Desertification: everyone has
a role to play in Earth's future The Education Kit on
Combating Desertification principally targets primary school
teachers and their pupils, aged 10-12 years old, in desertification-affected
countries. It demonstrates that desertification is not inevitable
and that everyone has a role to play in sustainably man aging
the world's drylands. The kit comprises:
- a teacher's guide on desertification
- case studies on successful dryland projects
- three copies each of the cartoon "The school where the
magic tree grows"
- a poster of the world's drylands
Free interactive web-based versions exist in English,
French and Spanish.
Hard copies of the kit can be ordered for Arabic,
English,
French,
and Spanish.
Also translated into Chinese, German, Hindi, Mongol and Russian,
the kit was prepared by UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB)
Programme in collaboration with the Secretariat of the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
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Teaching Resource Kit for Dryland Countries: a creative
approach to environmental education
Currently in preparation, this kit is aimed at primary and
secondary school teachers worldwide. It is based on an innovative
approach appealing to the creativity and artistic sensibilities
of pupils aged 6-15 approximately. The kit ties in with the
activities developed for the UNESCO spearheaded Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development (2005 - 2014). A sample
of the kit is available in English
and in French.
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UNESCO-MAB publication on Drylands
As a result of several international MAB dryland workshops,
the proceedings of the workshops are online
in pdf format.
Contact: Mr Thomas Schaaf, Focal point for Desertification,
UNESCO Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences 1, rue Miollis
Paris 75732 Cedex 15 France Tel: +33 1 45 68 40 67 Fax: +33
1 45 68 58 04
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| RELATED
CONTENT |
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| FEATURES |
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Education Kit on Combatting Desertification
The future of drylands revisited
(October - December 2006)
English / French
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