Global Change

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed contributions presented and discussed at the successful LANDCON 0905 Conference held at Tara Mountain, Serbia, between May 26-30 2009. In keeping with the title of the Conference, "Land Conservation: Global Change - Challenges for Soil Management", this book analyses and discusses the state of the art and future perspectives of the land. Many of the contributed papers are interconnected with natural, socio-economic and environmental changes worldwide. This book is arranged under eight separate but interconnected headings: LANDCON keynote, Global Change and Soil Degradation, Water Management, Soil Erosion, Sediment Transport and Sedimentation Processes, Erosion and Torrent Control in Environmental Change, Desertification, Socio-Economic and Legal and Institutional Aspects of Soil and Water Conservation, Implementing Global and Regional Projects. The book offers reflections, analysis, facts, new data and suggestions/ recommendations on land issues which are the crucial elements in the functioning of biosphere/environment. Land conservation and erosion control require a site specific approach, the setting up of a persistent institutional activity in the affected river basins - an activity that must be legally based to be effective. In this sense, each region subject to land erosion needs to develop competent teams of experts able to deal with the site-specific problems, and to ensure institutional and legal support for this activity. An important aspect is the multidisciplinary character of the activity. It is essential to organize periodical exchange of information about the experiences of such teams operating in different regions. For the continuity of the ongoing efforts it is essential to educate and train young professionals to take part in the activity. The LANDCON offered an excellent opportunity in these regards and it can be recommended to continue the organization of similar meetings in the future, in different parts of the globe. Public information and education are most important aspects of land management and it is worth to underline the positive experiences reported at the LANDCON which confirmed that in many cases the local population has been most supportive to promote land conservation, and cases were quoted about areas where land erosion has been reduced with the growth of population and its agricultural activity - to the contrast of the general assumption that land erosion increases with the increase of population. Four key opportunities were proposed that may also help the message of land conservation reach a wider audience. First was the proposal for the formation of an Intergovernmental Panel on Land and Soil (1PLS), a little sister for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that had done so much to influence international policy. Second was the proposal to widen the brief of the UNESCO International Sediment Initiative (ISI) to include wider catchment characteristics and third was the proposal for a Balkan regional coordination group to continue the work begun in Serbia in 2007 on the creation of administrative frameworks for land conservation. Fourth, was the proposal to include a younger scholars forum in every future LANDCON meeting in order to help the development of the next generation of land conservation scientists.