Land Stewardship In The 21st Century

We must enhance the effectiveness ofland stewardship and management of the world's natural resources to meet a growing global population's need for conservation, sustainable development, and use of land, water, and other natural resources. Ecosystem-based, mul tiple-use land stewardship is necessary when considering the present and future uses ofland, water, and other natural resources on an operationally efficient scale. We need holistically planned and carefully implemented watershed management practices, projects, and pro grams to accommodate the increasing demand for commodities and amenities, clear water, open space, and uncluttered landscapes. An international conference in Tucson, Arizona, from March 13 to 16, 2000, examined these needs and increased people's awareness of the contributions that ecosystem-based, multiple-use watershed management can make to future land stewardship. The conference was sponsored by the School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona; the College of Agriculture, University of Arizona; the Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service; the Research Center for Conservation of Water Resources and Disaster Pre vention, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan; the Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota; the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agriculture Man agement, University of Minnesota; the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas del Noreste, Mexico; the International Arid Lands Consortium; the USDA Natural Resources Conserva tion Service; the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior; the Salt River Project, Phoenix, Arizona; the Southern Arizona Chapter, Southwestern Section of the Society of American Foresters; and IUFRO Working Party 8. 04. 04, Erosion Control by Watershed Management.

The effectiveness of land stewardship must be enhanced to meet a growing population's need for conservation, sustainable development, and use of natural resources. Ecosystem-based, multiple-use oriented land stewardship is necessary when considering the present and future uses of land, water, and other natural resources on an operationally efficient scale. Holistically planned and carefully implemented watershed management practices and programs will always be needed to meet the increasing demands for commodities and amenities, clear water, open space, and uncluttered landscapes. An international conference was held in Tucson, Arizona, on March 13 to 16, 2000, to examine this need. The primary purpose of the conference was to increase people's awareness of the contributions that watershed management can make to future land stewardship in the United States and internationally. Invited synthesis papers were presented by 35 speakers from research institutes, management agencies, and educational organizations in the United States and internationally. More than 50 poster papers on watershed research projects, applied watershed management activities, and technology transfer mechanisms complemented the synthesis papers to broaden the conference scope. Proceedings of the conference, entitled "Land Stewardship in the 21st Century: The Contributions of Watershed Management," were published by and are available from the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526. These proceedings are also available on the Rocky Mountain Research Station's World Wide Web pages at www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/stewardship.html. This bibliography is a compilation of the synthesis and poster papers presented at the conference along with the literature cited in these papers. This publication furnishes a literature basis for researchers, managers, decision-makers, educators, students, and lay persons with a keen interest in watershed management and better land stewardship in the future.

This volume of 18 chapters is the work of more than 30 authors, many of whom are natives of the Central Asian region or are researchers who have dedicated a large part of their working lives to studying the development dynamics in this vast and fascinating region. The work focuses on the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. But it also traces the attitudes of land users to the land dating from before the late 19th century, when Russian conquest and colonization occurred, and through the upheavals caused by Soviet-style collectivization and sedentarization. The book is rich with new data presented in 68 easy to understand charts/graphs (many in color) and 50 Tables. Information was generated for this book by experts working in-country. It presents for the first time in English a digest of plethora of previously inaccessible Russian reports and scientific literature that will be invaluable for development agencies, including UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Bank as well as to students of this vast and fascinating region who seek up to date and authoritive information.

The International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC) was established in 1990 to promote research, education, and training activities related to the development, management, and restoration or reclamation of arid and semiarid lands worldwide. The IALC, a leading international organization, supports ecological sustainability and development of arid and semiarid lands. Building on a decade of experience, IALC continues to increase the knowledge-base for managers by funding research, development, and demonstration projects, and special initiatives. The results from the scientific and technical projects enhance management and stewardship of arid and semiarid ecosystems for sustainable use, while maintaining the integrity of the ecological processes. The publication presents a review of the accomplishments and contributions of IALC's science and technical programs through a synopsis of the projects and initiatives. We group the projects and initiatives into soil and water resources development and conservation, land use and reclamation, processes enhancing the management of ecological systems, and inventorying and measurements techniques and monitoring.