Fjölrit RALA - 05.12.1999, Page 11

Olafur Arnalds and Steve archer
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pressures on the world’s rangelands. A 300% increase in livestock numbers is re-
ported in Botswana from 1966-1991, and similar trends have been observed in China,
Ethiopia, the Mediterranean, India, and other areas presented herein. The volume con-
cludes with a summary of issues discussed by the workshop participants, an itemiza-
tion of key science issues, and an assessment of implications for the UN Convention
to Combat Desertification.
Ecosystem degradation and desertification can be natural (Haynes 1982), human-
induced (Owen 1979, Gomitz and NASA 1985) or a combination of the two (Ver-
straete 1986). However, the subject of land degradation and desertification is young
and often poorly defined. There is even debate as to whether factors such as livestock
grazing has caused ecosystem degradation to occur (Mace 1991, Illius and O’Connor
1999). The term desertification is still subjected to debates (see Amalds 2000).
Recent concerns regarding potential climate change associated with greenhouse-
gas accumulations in the atmosphere has focused public attention on climate effects
on ecosystem processes. However, to the extent that it exceeds natural variability, this
potential climate change is directly or indirectly the result of human population
growth, land use change and the attendant alteration of ecosystem processes associ-
ated with resource utilization. These issues form the core of ecosystem degradation
and desertification. The potential consequences of human population growth, land use
change and resource consumption are quite independent of, and, arguably, are collec-
tively more important than changes in climate which may be gradual and which may
not be manifested for many decades. Thus, a pre-occupation with ‘global warming’
should not divert attention from more immediate and tractable problems associated
with human impacts on the land.
Anthropogenic environmental impacts have shaped the the earths’s surface. They
represent a much greater and more immediate threat to the environment at present
than climate change in the near fiiture. Furthermore, they can reinforce the negative
effects of climate change (Schlesinger et al. 1990, Burke et al. 1991, Tumer et al.
1993, Vitousek 1994, Dale 1997).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Ms. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland for her support of this project from
beginning to end. We also thank David Sanders, Denis Peter, Bjorn Sigurbjomsson, Magnus Johann-
esson, Sveinn Runolfsson, Thorsteinn Tomasson, Halldor Thorgeirsson, Andres Arnalds, Asa L. Ara-
dottir, Ulfur Bjornsson, Einar Gretarsson, Steinunn Geirsdottir, and the numerous Icelanders involved
‘behind the scenes’ in organizing the logistics of the workshop, field trips and this publication. Both
publications from the workshop were typeset by Tryggvi Gunnarsson at RALA with the help of Dag-
ny E. Amalds. We are very thankfui for their good work.
The workshop was funded by the Icelandic Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry' for the Environ-
ment, the Agricultural Research Institute and the Soil Conservation Service. Additional funds were
provided by the European Commission. We thank these organizations for their important contribu-
tions.
REFERENCES
Arnalds, O. 2000. Desertification: an appeal for a broader perspective. In: Rangeland Desertification
(eds. Arnalds, O. and Archer, S.). Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, 5-12.
Arnalds, O. and Archer. S. (eds.) 2000. Rangeland Desertification. Kluwer Academic Publishers.