Roundtable 2
December 5, 2006, 15:15 Convention Center, Sharjah
  Download your PDF version of this roundtable 

_________________________________________________

Combating Desertification in the GCC Countries:
Grazing and how to deal with it in a modern world
 

Sustainable grazing management strategies in the GCC countries –
how can we achieve it in a non participatory political environment?

organized and moderated by:

Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Barth
(ISDEHS 2007 Pre Planning Chair)

Professor for Physical Geography, University of Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: barth@ndrd.org, phone: +49 6221 54-5471, fax: +49 6221 54-4997

The Gulf Region has experienced a rapid development since the second half of the last century due to the benefits of oil and gas revenues. Industrialization and urbanization changed the traditional way of life of most of the local population in all Gulf countries. The transformation of traditional husbandry into a commercial ranging system during the last decades represented a destructive impact upon the desert rangelands. The provision of governmental subsidized concentrated foodstuffs replaced the dependence upon the open range, which led to over exploitation of the resources. Since no effective measures have been undertaken to stop this pressing problem, the vegetation is far from recovery and the economic loss due to overexploitation of formerly productive open rangelands is enormous. Individual flock owners profit at the expense of the national community, but as long as range resources are perceived as free and limitless, this cost is hidden!

The main objective of this roundtable discussion is to bring together various stake holders and provide the forum for an open discussion among all the parties on how to best approach the grazing issues in the region before the desert rangelands become irreversibly degraded.

Roundtable Objectives

The roundtable aims at addressing the following issues:

• Provide a status report on the present condition of the rangelands in the Gulf Region
• Identify the causes of non existent grazing management
• Provide an overview of possible sustainable grazing management techniques
• Identify the constraints preventing a sustainable grazing management so far
• Find solutions which might help to solve the problems preventing sustainable grazing management
• Develop an action plan
   

Roundtable Format

The roundtable will be an open debate providing the opportunity to all participants to discuss the issues and identify the constrains, challenges, and opportunities.

The proposed roundtable structure will be as follows:

• Presenting relevant economic, social, and environmental facts and data from the region
  and providing insights about the current trends and future ones;
• Posing a question or questions;
• Moderating the debate;
• Providing specific suggestions and/or recommendations as well as steps to be undertaken
  that would yield short and especially long term solutions.
• In order to facilitate the discussion the participants may provide short handouts (1-2 pages),
  if they chose, to all the other roundtable members.