Combating Desertification and Land Degradation

Abstract

Asia and the Pacific, for the purposes of this book, encompasses a vast territory extending from Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the south; from the Cook Islands in the east to Kuwait in the west (Map 1). The environmental diversity of Asia and the Pacific is therefore vast, and is contrasted by the region’s coldest and hottest deserts, verdant tropical rain forests, extensive steppe, desert steppe,grassland and range lands, mountains and plains. It is this great variation in geography, topography and climate that provides the rich and unique diversity found in the region’s ecosystems. There is great disparity too in the ethnicity of its people’s and the economic status of its nations.