Objectives

DESERTLINKS will support the UNCCD Annex IV National Committees and other stakeholders at the local, sub-national and national level in combating desertification. It will bring the results of past research on the physical and socio-economic aspects of desertification to bear on the identification and use of desertification indicators at various geographical scales from the local to the European. It will combine a range of indicator types into a desertification indicator system for Mediterranean Europe. It will evaluate the use of the indicator system in new regions and the identification of high risk areas under different scenarios. It will provide guidelines on the use of indicators to the Annex IV National Committees and the Committee for Science and Technology.

Mediterranean desertification will be treated as a society-driven problem that can be effectively managed by applying existing knowledge through a thorough comprehension of the principal processes consequent on land use and environmental change. Much of the research activity will be applied in four representative target areas, the Alentejo Region (Portugal), Guadalentín Basin (Spain), Agri Basin (Italy) and the island of Lesvos (Greece). These are all sub-national-scale areas which experience substantial problems of desertification and land degradation and are included by the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Greek National Committees for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in their focus of activity.

Central to the project is the participation, in each target area, of groups of the principal stakeholders in land management to combat desertification, including:

• representatives from different socio-professional groups and organisations drawn from local communities;
• representatives from different levels of political and governmental decision making, including representatives of the UNCCD national committees;
• members of the scientific community in the different fields related to desertification, from the natural to the social sciences.

The project has three principal objectives.

1. To work with local stakeholders to identify impact indicators relating to perceptions of land function; driving force and pressure indicators relating to decision making; and response indicators relating to land management measures taken to combat desertification. To provide a conceptual framework for the indicators of different types and scales. (Part 1).
2. To develop composite indicators, combining those stakeholder-identified ones with a number of bio-physical and socio-economic state indicators already developed for Mediterranean Europe at the sub-national scale. To develop composite indicators at the Mediterranean-wide scale. (Part 2).
3. To combine the indicators of different scale and type into a desertification indicator system for Mediterranean Europe, which can be used to explore different management options. To work with both local stakeholders and the National Committees to test and validate the indicator system. To develop guidelines for the UNCCD on the development and use of indicators to manage desertification. (Part 3).

In these ways the project aims to make a substantial contribution from European scientific research to the work of the UNCCD. It will draw on previous research results to provide indicators for the identification of desertification risk as well as methods and techniques for managing it. In accordance with the principles of the UNCCD, by working with the stakeholders the project will set up liaisons and linkages between governmental policy-making organisations and local policy-implementing structures. The project aims to consolidate a land management network to combat desertification in each target area, following a bottom-up approach, based on effective participatory processes and partnerships.