Work Package 3.4 Validation of the desertification indicator system desertification affected areas (the work package will be coordinated by FUERM-GF, FUEMUR-DCN and KCL)

This work package will address the validation and use of the desertification indicator system by (i) local land managers in the focus groups, (ii) regional managers in the national focal points. This will facilitate the integration of results in three crucial issues for the preparation and development of the NAPs and RAP:

• the application of indicators methodology at national scale to define ESA and subsequent target/priority areas for mitigation and preventive implementation;
  
• the application of methods for policy and management feed back according expected changes (the dynamic and preventive dimension of NAP which is so difficult to visualise); and
  
• the generation of alternative sustainable land use schemes of the affected areas.
  

The work package will have three principal tasks.

1. Examination of the desertification indicator system by the focus groups to assess its validity and use in evaluating different "what if?" scenarios for different land use decisions and management practices. Stakeholder Focus Group Workshop 4. (led by FUEMUR-GF, but implemented in all four target areas in collaboration with AUA, DGPR-FCSH-UNL and DITEC-UNIBAS)

The Manual "Desertification Indicator System for Mediterranean Europe" will be summarised avoiding technical and scientific details and concentrating on the comprehension of the facts. Although all of the groups involved in this work package will produce a similar basic document, this will be adapted to the particular conditions of each Target Area. It will include maps of the risk of desertification derived from the ESAIS in each target area as well as maps of surrounding areas derived from the RDI. It will also include a number of maps of high risk areas developed from the different "what if?" scenarios developed from different management decisions.

These summary manuals will be sent to the stakeholders in each target area in order to discover:

• Do they thoroughly understand the results illustrated?
  
• Do they think that the information provided is useful for end-user management and forregional policy planning and implementation?
  
• Do they think that the results match their perception about the status and dynamics of desertification? Do the results reveal the real situation?
  
• Do they find the results user-friendly? That is to say, can the results be easily used by non-scientific people?
  

The questionnaires will be complemented with in-depth interviews to relevant stakeholders. The results of questionnaires and interviews will be analysed and summarised to write a report for focus group Workshop 4. In addition, each target area team will produce a positional paper for this workshop.

Lasting three days, Workshop 4 will discuss the desertification indicator system and the key questions outlined above: ease of comprehension, usefulness, ease of use, and whether the results match reality. Participants of the workshop will be encouraged to criticise and to suggest improvements, and how information provided by the indicator system could be applied to development plans to combat desertification. One of the days of the workshop will be devoted to a field excursion in order to compare maps of risk with reality and to extract conclusions about how stakeholders and scientists perceive desertification.

2. Use of the desertification indicator system by the focal point representatives on other pilot areas (led by FUEMUR-DCN)

The Annex IV Focal points have each identified areas of their countries which are affected by desertification. In this task the focal point representatives will work with members of DESERTLINKS as they assess the portability of the desertification indicator system to one or other of these areas. The requirements for local data and information will be identified by the DESERTLINKS partners, and the focal point representatives will be responsible for the (limited) gathering exercise in the area of their choice and for preparing the data sets. It is expected that both the identification of test areas and data sets required will be carried out under the auspices of the second MEDRAP workshop in May 2002. The focal points will then have some 2 years to complete the data collection (although it should take nothing like this long) before the indicator system is tested.
In an interactive exercise (in the form of a seminar or workshop) with the DESERTLINKS partners and the focal point representatives the desertification indicator system will be applied to the data. This exercise will include discussion about the application of the methodology, generation of results and most importantly a comparative assessment of the method for every target area (no matter the that results were oversimplified because time limitations). The result could be refined or amplified locally during a period of two months after the workshop. A report on joint comparative application and suitability of the desertification indicator system to address NAP needs will be written.

A seminar of two sessions (one day) (conceived as an extension of the above seminar), to take advantage of the presence of the focal point and NAP representatives, will be devoted to the presentation of the methodology and preliminary results of WP3.3 to the focal point representatives for subsequent consideration, and submission of comments and possible contributions for the respective target areas (see exploitation plans for WP3.3).

3. Writing of guidelines for the CST and the UNCCD on the use of desertification indicator systems by both local stakeholders and the focal point representatives to manage and monitor desertification. (led by KCL with inputs from 3D-EC)

Guidelines will be written for the CST and the UNCCD on the use of desertification indicator systems in the light of experience gained in Tasks 1 and 2 by both local stakeholders and the focal point representatives to manage and monitor desertification. These guidelines will take into account the possible role of national and local singularities and the way desertification indicator systems can be adapted. Also these guidelines will stress the recommended procedures for the active involvement of stakeholders an local administration and communities in the application of desertification indicator system. The guidelines will be in three sections

• scientific theory explaining indicators and validating methods
  
• description of procedures and methods and
  
• case studies in target areas
  

Results: Non technical, simplified version of the Desertification Indicator System for Mediterranean Europe Manual including scenarios resulting from different management decisions. Guidelines on the use of desertification indicators by both local stakeholders and the focal points.