Land degradation

Land degradation Newsletters (Nr.1-4, 1997-1999) Hari Eswaran, Luca Montanarella, Selim Kapur, Erhan Akca (eds.)

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL

Joint Research Centre 2004

Insritul« for Environment and Sustainability

EUR 21183 EN

Land degradation  Newsletters  (Nr.1­4,  1997­1999)  Hari  Eswaran,  Luca  Montanarella,  Selim  Kapur,  Erhan  Akca  (eds.) 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION  DIRECTORATE­GENERAL  DIRECTORATE­GENERAl 

Joint Research Centre

 

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MISSION

The mission of the Institute of Environment and Sustainability is to provide scientific and technical support to EU strategies for the protection of the environment and sustainable development. Employing an integrated approach to the investigation of air, water and soil contaminants, its goals are sustainable management of water resources, protection and maintenance of drinking waters, good functioning of aquatic ecosystems and good ecological quality of surface waters.

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EUR 21183 EN © European Communities, 2004 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged Printed in Italy

The papers printed in the document may be cited as follows: In: Land degradation Newsletters (Nr.1-4, 1997-1999), Hari Eswaran, Luca Montanarella, Selim Kapur, Erhan Akca (eds.), EUR 21183 EN, (2004), 136 pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.

COVER MAP THE EUROPEAN SOIL DATABASE VERSION 1.0: DOMINANT SOILS ACCORDING TO WRB (1998)

FOREWORD There is a need to evaluate land resources to assess the potential for degradation to manage the resilience characteristics of the systems and select technological options in the framework of the resilience properties. A comprehensive new agenda is needed to protect the sustainability of the ecosystem and prevention of land degradation. In the preparation of the new agenda, all sectors including stakeholder and non-governmental organizations support systems should work together. Great pragmatism is required from national decision makers to subscribe to a new land ethic, to safeguard ecological sustainability and biological diversity together with the economic productivity potentials of the nations. This should be followed by the establishment of a sustainable land management institution, to carry out the above mentioned tasks. The new agenda should include a science based approach, to understand land quality and its changes by management alternatives. Assessment, monitoring, and the use of reliable cost-effective indicators are now becoming available. Thus, the appropriate technologies provide some answers for food security, environmental balance, and land degradation. These issues are strongly linked with one another and each must be addressed separately by their impacts. The mitigation technologies comprise; indicators for early warning of land degradation and determination of land quality, such as the removal of nutrients from soils, with acidification, salinisation, deterioration of soil structure and loss of organic matter under stressed environments. In the past, the attention was focused on the rehabilitation of degraded land. Agenda 21 (Ch. 12 - UNCED, 1992) emphasizes desertification with activities setup for preventive actions. As mentioned above, other aspects of land degradation received little attention in Agenda 21, which are considered briefly in Chapter 10 as "Integrated Approach to the Planning and Management of Land Resources". It is believed, although land degradation is more important than environmental protection, because it includes the environment together with many other aspects that are considered with the concept of environmental protection, it has not received the global attention in Agenda 21 that it deserves in spite of the mention on "to strengthen regional and global systematic observation networks linked to the development of national systems for the observation of land degradation and desertification caused both by climate fluctuations and by human impact, and to identify priority areas for action". We have yet to mobilize the multiconceptual scientific community to develop a proactive program for land degradation. The challenges we face today are to: 1. Mobilise the scientific community to mount an integrated program for methods, standards, data collection and research networks for assessment and monitoring of soil an land degradation, 2. Develop land use models that incorporate both natural and human-induced factors that contribute to land degradation and that could be used for land use planning and management, 3. Develop information systems that link environmental monitoring, accounting and impact assessment to land degradation, 4. Help develop policies that encourage sustainable land use and management and assist in the greater use of land resource information for sustainable agriculture, 5. Develop economic instruments in the assessment of land degradation to encourage the suitable use of land resources, 6. Establish an international institute to cope with the land degradation problem at a global level with sample areas for assessment, monitoring and development of mitigation technologies

A Task Force -now the International Working Group on Land Degradation and Desertification, a formal body of the IUSS, member of the ICSU- was formed to catalyze efforts to enhance the understanding and better utilization of world land resources together with the development of guidelines to address problems of land degradation and desertification. The Working Group is undertaking the opportunity to proceed with the publication of the biannual newsletter on land degradation and desertification together with the Institute of Environment and Sustainability (IES) of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, seeking to amalgamate the present efforts undertaken throughout the world on combating Land Degradation and Desertification, and luckily reach the ultimate goal mentioned above -the establishment of an international initiative on Land Degradation and Desertification. The Editors

LAND DEGRADATION &

DESERTIFICATION Newsletter of the International Working Group Land Degradation And Desertification IUSS April 1999, No. 4

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E D I T O R 

LEAD  PAPER: THE ECONOMICS OF FOREST CONVERSION IN NORTHERN THAILAND:  CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS  FROM THOSE BEFORE US  IN A  LIGHTER VEIN  SECRETARY'S  REPORT  NEW OR ONGOING INITIATIVES  NATIONAL AND REGIONAL  REPORTS  BOOK  REVIEWS  WEBSITES  RELATED TO LAND DEGRADATION AND EARTH RESOURCES MONITORING  ANNOUNCEMENTS 

41

LAND DEGRADATION

Newsletter of The International Task Force On Land Degradation

August 1998, No. 3

42

Contents LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LEAD PAPER IN A LIGHTER VEIN TASK FORCE ON LAND DEGRADATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE SECRETARY'S REPORT NEW OR ONGOING INITIATIVES NATIONAL AND REGIONAL REPORTS Asia's ecological crisis Potential COï-Production In Some Soils of The S.E. Anatolian Project Area - Gap Recent Carbon Deposition Along The Anatolian Shelves BOOK REVIEWS LETTER TO THE EDITOR ANNOUNCEMENTS 5th International Meeting on Mediterranean Soils 10TH International Soil Conservation Organisation Conference 2nd International Conference On Land Degradation

75

LAND DEGRADATION

Newsletter of the International Task Force On Land Degradation

September 1997, No. 2

/-6

Contents LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LEAD PAPER... MEETINGS, WORKSHOPS ETC... TASK FORCE ON LAND DEGRADATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE... NEW INITIATIVESNATIONAL AND REGIONAL REPORTS... Conservation And Biodiversity In Britain... Determinants Of Sustainable Agriculture In The Southern Coastal Plains Of AlbaniaImpacts Of Land Degradation In The Mediterranean Region... Some Aspects Of Land Degradation In The Central Zagros Region, IranMonitoring Of Soil Fertility As A Protective Measure Against Degradation... Land Degradation Problems In The Indian Arid Zone And Strategies For Their Amelioration... Land Degradation In Agri Basin - Southern Italy... Ameliorative Measures For Salt-Effected Degraded Soils Of Pakistan... Misuse Of The Mediterranean Coastal Areas In Turkey... Farmer-User Participation In Soil Conservation: The Philippine Experience... Preserving Our Heritage: A Case Study From Southern Turkey... BOOK REVIEWSANNOUNCEMENTS... INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ARID REGION SOILS (YISARS)... 10 T H INTERNATIONAL SOIL CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION CONFERENCE... 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LAND DEGRADATION: MEETING THE CHALLENGE...

117

LAND DEGRADATION

Newsletter Of The International Task Force On Land Degradation

February 1997, No. 1

ii8

Contents LETTER FROM THE EDITORS REPORT OF THE 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TASK FORCE ON LAND DEGRADATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE NEW INITIATIVES WORLD BANK PLANS, NEW INITIATIVE ON "GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS FROM LAND DEGRADATION CONTROL NATIONAL AND REGIONAL REPORTS LAND DEGRADATION DUE TO SALINIZATION OF INTENSIVELY IRRIGATED REGIONS MONITORING CONTAMINATION OF SOILS IN SLOVAKIA FACTS ABOUT LAND DEGRADATION IN TURKEY SOIL EROSION ESVMATES FOR SOME WATERSHEDS IN IRAN THE ROLE OF NGOS IN COMBATTING DESERTIFICATION GLOBAL EFFORTS TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION I LAND DEGRADATION INFLUENCE OF LAND DEGRADATION ON THE DOMESTIC MARKET-GARDENING, NUTRITION AND WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH IN THE ARAL SEA REGION, KAZAKHSTAN ADVERSE EFFECT OF UNCONTROLLED DEVELOPMENT OF THE URBAN AREAS ON THE AGRICULTURAL LAND IN TURKEY, A CASE STUDY AT THE MERSIN PROVINCE GLOBAL WETLANDS: A FRAGILE ECOSYSTEM VULNERABLE TO DEGRADATION BOOK REVIEWS World in Transition: The threat to Soils. 1994 Annual Report of the German Advisory Council on Global Change. Pubi. Economica Verlag, Bonn, Germany. 225pp. Current Conditions of Ecosystem of Mongolia. I. Szabolcs. Map at scale of 1:1,000,000. Russian-Mongolian Complex Biological Expedition. Land Degradation in South Asia: Its Seventy, Causes and Effects upon the people. World Soil Resources Report 78. UNDP, UNEP, and FAO. 1994. Salinisation of Land and Water Resources. Human causes, extent, management, and case studies. F. Ghassemi, A.J. Jakeman and H.A. Nix. CAB International, Wallingford. 1995. ANNOUNCEMENT SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LAND DEGRADATION: MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF LAND DEGRADATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Mission of the .IRC The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL

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