Appraising and Selecting Conservation Measures to Mitigate Desertification and Land Degredation Based on Stakeholder Participation and Global Best Practices

Gudrun Schwilch, Felicitas Bachmann & Hanspeter Liniger (2009)

Most desertification research focuses on degradation assessments without putting sufficient emphasis on prevention and mitigation strategies, although the concept of sustainable land management (SLM) is increasingly being acknowledged. A variety of already applied conservation measures exist at the local level, but they are not adequately recognised, evaluated and shared, either by land users, technicians, researchers, or policy makers. Likewise, collaboration between research and implementation is often insufficient.
The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology for a participatory process of appraising and selecting desertification mitigation strategies, and to present first experiences from its application in the EU-funded DESIRE project.