Sustainability Of Dryland Ecosystems And Societies: Opportunities And Challenges
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Date
2011Author
Njoka, J. T.
Type
PresentationLanguage
enMetadata
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Dryland systems cover 41.3% of global area, support 35.5% of global population and provide
important services for both human livelihoods and global ecological sustainability. The dryland
ecosystems however are not static but respond to the global changes in climate, economic and
social political governance systems. Some of the key challenges facing sustainability of dryland
ecosystems and societies include rapid demographic changes, climate change; land degradation
through non sustainable utilization of dryland resources; loss of biodiversity; land fragmentation;
land tenure and land use changes, escalating conflicts over diminishing natural resources,
increasing vulnerability of dryland livelihoods to droughts and floods, and loss of access to
global markets. Interventions in drylands improve of our knowledge and understandingof
dryland ecosystem resilience and human adaptation strategies for coping with these changes will
contribute to sustainable management of these ecosystems. Such interventions will lead to better
decision making in promoting opportunities for sustainable land management of drylands. The
new Center for Sustainable Dryland Ecosystems and Societies at the University of Nairobi is
addressing the opportunities and challenges facing the drylands in Kenya through improved
educational curricula, generation of new knowledge through action research, outreach activities
as well as by establishing an information/knowledge exchange platform for key players in
sustainable dryland development.