The dry areas face severe challenges to sustainable development. The biggest challenges – food insecurity, water scarcity, land degradation, and climate change – are closely inter-related. The effects of climate change will be felt globally, but the dry areas will be particularly hard hit. Climate change will exacerbate water scarcity, rainfall variability, and the decline in the natural resource base, and thus could have a profound impact on food security.

In 2007, ICARDA celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. The Center and its partners have worked together for three decades to improve the food security and livelihoods of the poor in dry and marginal areas. During this time, we have seen significant changes in the biophysical environment and in socio-economic circumstances. New farming technologies, new livelihood options, and better policies and institutions are speeding up agricultural development in the world's dry areas, and we are proud of the role we have played in this progress.

In Pakistan, rangelands are the major source of feed for about 167.5 million heads of livestock. At present rangelands are being grazed by all kinds of livestock. About 40 percent of feed requirements for horses, donkeys and camels, 60 percent of the goats and sheep are met from rangelands whereas only 5-10 percent of the population of cattle and buffaloes graze in the rangelands despite they are heavily overgrazed, and has reduced the carrying capacity by 30 to 50 percent of their potential.

List of Participant to the stakeholder meeting held in Tunis and aimed at establishing a processes for sustainable collective rangeland management and governance

Presentation made by Jutta werner during the stakeholder meeting held in Tunis and aimed at developing sound policies that will enable implementation of governance of rangelands (collective action for sustainable pastoralism)

Links between ICARDA and Spain are long established. A glance at any map of the Mediterranean will help explain why both have benefited from this collaboration. Spain is an active member of the European Union but it is also separated geographically by just a handful of kilometers from part of ICARDA's mandate area—North Africa. In history, the connection has been even closer, both politically and culturally, when southern Spain came under the influence of the Arab world.

Video is animated infographic describing rangelands of Central Asia, their conditions, issues, degradation factors. The video also demonstrates ways of sustainable management.

Water scarcity and land degradation are widespread problems that affect agricultural productivity, food security and environmental quality in several parts of the world, particularly in the dry areas. Sustainable management of soil and water is necessary to optimize the use of limited rainwater for crop production and to decrease soil erosion. One management option is utilizing rainfall more efficiently through water harvesting. In arid areas, different types of water harvesting techniques (WHT) are being developed by

Even if preliminary results have shown that a protection period of 3 years is not sufficient for disappeared species to appear nor for succession to reach a next stage, mainly in the degraded Stipa tenacissima community, the reintroduction of the rest “gdal” practice seems to be beneficial and a suitable tool to manage sustainably the arid rangelands under changing climate. Thus, the evidence suggests that, during short-term rest from grazing (2 years), vegetation cover, density, rangeland production and carrying capacity can be improved.

The main objective of this study is to introduce the first consistent long ­term land cover database for Jordan. The Jordan National Land Cover Database (JNLCD) consists of four land cover maps for the years 1984, 1991, 1998, and 2014 that were developed at 30m resolution using a total of 11 Landsat TM/OLI satellite scenes. We primarily applied ISO DATA classification method and rule ­based method for refining misclassified classes. The overall accuracy achieved for the 1984 land cover map was 88% and for the 2014 land cover map was 93%.

Research on micro-catchment rainwater harvesting techniques by ICARDA and Jordanian
scientists has led to the establishment of semicircular bunds on contour ridges and furrows
(using GPS laser-guided Vallerani machine) and runoff strips in two communities of Jordan
Badia. As an outcome of this research, an effective micro-catchment laser-guided system was
identified for rainfall harvesting, which has led to improved water availability, increased
vegetative cover and improved soil health, and provided rural communities substantial sources

The present document consists of a workshop presentation in which are illustrated three different studies from three different projects, focused on natural resource governance, but all relevant to land use planning.