干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The definition of desertification has undergone several changes over the last few decades. Yet, the word still means different things to different people, leading to confusions in assessment. Personal opinions and perceptions, rather than proven scientific data are the basis of many previous assessments. Hence, it is now becoming difficult to garner enough institutional and government support to carry out large-scale control measures on such information. Moreover, technical solutions to many problems are available and can be sharpened, but the socio-economic questions are still difficult to answer. These are difficult hurdles ahead.