Fjölrit RALA - 05.12.1999, Page 13

RALA Reportno. 200
Future deserts and sustainable communities
Thadis W. Box
Rangeland Resources Department. Utah State University, Logan. Utah. USA
Tel: S0l-~8~-8706; E-mail: lhox(á]cc.iisu.edu
Abstract
The extent and intensity of rangeland desertification. and attempts to correct past abuses will be di-
rectly related to cultural vaiues and new land uses. These values and land uses will vary regionally
and differ with population density and economy of land users. There will be great differences between
rich and poor countries. New approaches to sustainable communities must be developed for both.
Our growing understanding of rangelands and better science provide tools to prevent further dete-
rioration of rangeland and improve those already devastated. The ability to stop desertification will
not be a technical or scientific fix; it will depend on our ability to develop political, economic, and
cultural programs to deliver the technology of developed countries to depleted rangelands in countries
unable to provide for their human population.
Key words: desertification, range management, social conditions, soil loss, sustainability.
I ask you to use your imagination. Imagine that you have been invited to spend a week
with eighty of the world’s leading experts on desertification to think about a problem
that affects 40% of the globe’s surface. Imagine that every person alive will be af-
fected by the problem and that the future of civilization will depend on how well soci-
ety addresses it. You have been asked to think in a setting where new landscapes are
formed each year, where old landscapes are losing their living skin, and where some
plants have not evolved protective secondary plant compounds or other arming
mechanisms against grazing. Your host is a country with a written record going back
to settlement a millennium ago. Its grazing laws are more than 800 years old. Its heros
are its writers. Its former president, ministers, and captains of industry meet with you
and encourage you.
You are not dreaming. We are here, guests of Iceland, challenged to think about
stopping desertification. We have done fairly well up to this point. There has been a
minimum of pouring old wine into new wineskins - reinventing old concepts with
new names. We have talked about principles and functions, causes and cures. We have
shared the enthusiasm of our hosts.
Now we are being asked to look to the future - a world where many people do not
share Iceland’s desire to stop land degradation, where those engaged in corporate
downsizing and concem for the bottom line have more advocates than those con-
cemed with the land, where many of the dedicated research groups and long term deg-
radation studies are being phased out. But let us not dwell on the negative. Let us seize
the opportunity to capture the optimism of our hosts and think about the future.
As I thought about my assignment to focus on the future, it seemed to me that de-
sertifícation and sustainable communities are part of the same continuum. This paper
reflects my biases.
I am an academic, trained in ecology and land use principles, but I believe princi-
ples must be applied to real people, under a given set of circumstances, at a specific
time. This holds true whether the problem is preventing desertification in Iceland, de-
signing a housing development in New Zealand, or increasing biodiversity around
maize fields in the United States.