The Global Deserts Outlook is the first thematic assessment report in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) series of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). A UNEP contribution to the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in 2006, the report aims to help raise global public awareness of the state of the world's deserts.

International Scientific Conference on Desertification and Drylands Research - Tunis Tunisia, 19-21 June 2006

Desertificaton is a significant land degradation problem in the arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid regions of the world. Deterioration of soil and plant cover has adversely affected 70% of the world's drylands as a result of extended droughts as well as mismanagement of range and cultivated lands. Future of Drylands addresses these issues and offers practical solutions for combating desertification along with conserving and sustainably managing dryland ecosystems.

The Future of Arid Lands - Revisited, reexamines the earlier work of 1956. Written by researchers from the University of Arizona, this volume first looks at the state of science in 1956 and attendant contemporary views of arid lands development. It then considers how scientific understanding of the processes governing arid lands has since evolved, before extracting lessons from these comparisons that might guide current and future arid land managers and speculating on what the future might hold for arid lands.

The World Atlas of Desertification summarises the state of scientific knowledge on the drylands of the globe. Representing in graphic form the current state of our understanding of desertification, as well as its extent and possible solutions, it contains an extraordinary amount of information of value to students and experts alike. It clearly shows that desertiflcation is one of the world's most pressing environmental problems, and that it is a truly global issue.