Approximately 3.6 billion hectares (25% of the earth’s land area) are affected by land degradation and desertification. This affects more than 900 million people in 100 countries, some of them among the least developed in the world. In West Asia, 79.3% of the land cover is desert or decertified, with a further 16.3% vulnerable to desertification. The land area at no risk is very small (2.4%).

The underlying causes of desertification are the complex interactions between a number of factors, including: physical; biological; political; social; cultural; and economic factors. Population growth and the need for food production in ecologically fragile arid and semi-arid lands are putting too much pressure on the ecosystems. Many land use projects are designed without full understanding of the socio-economic conditions of the population and the dynamics of sustainability and of the natural resource base. The rapid and often inappropriate development policies undervalue these natural resources and encourage misuse