Global Environmental Governance and Desertification: A Study of Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Environmental problems have assumed importance of late and among them desertification has received more attention than many others. It is a complex issue arising from the interaction of physical, biological, political, social, cultural and economic factors in the dry lands. It makes an impact on the livelihood of the poor. The term was coined by Louis Lavauden in 1927 and popularised by Andre Aubreville in 1962. It is an irony that over 100 formal definitions of desertification were proposed by experts from time to time and a generally agreed definition was decided upon only in 1977. It received global attention in the same decade. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is a part of the international concern about it. This book seeks to analyse its implementation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.