Roundtable: Global Network of Dryland Research Institutes (GNDRI)

Convener: Prof. Quirico Migheli, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy

The 2019 IPCC Climate Change and Land report indicates that the range and intensity of desertification have increased in some dryland areas over the past several decades. It further mentions that increasing anthropogenic pressures on land, combined with climate change, will reduce the resilience of dryland populations, and constrain their adaptive capacities. Finally, it highlights that the knowledge of the limits of adaptation to the combined effects of climate change and desertification is insufficient.

As scientists in institutes that devote their research to drylands, it is our responsibility, and within our capacity, to help bridge these knowledge gaps. We believe that the Global Network of Dryland Research Institutes (GNDRI) can play a significant role in commonly defining the most pressing knowledge gaps and the best approaches to bridge them. We further believe that creating an active and initiative “Desert Forum” would help raise awareness to the unique effects of climate change on drylands.

The expected deliverables from the RTD are identification of common interests and topics of high importance and relevance to as many regions. We also hope to develop concrete ideas as to how to promote dryland research and provide the young generation of scientists with opportunities to share and acquire knowledge from different dryland ecosystems.

Participants:

– Dr. Abdelghani Chehbouni, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco

– Prof. Elena Maria Abraham, CONICET, IADIZA – CCT CONICET Mendoza, Argentina
– Prof. Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, A.C. (IPICYT), Mexico

– Dr. Jorge Salazar-Bravo, International Center for Arid and Semiarid Lands Studies (ICASALS), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

– Prof. Noam Weisbrod, Director of Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR)

– Prof. Nurit Agam, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

– – Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, & Conference Chair of DDD 2022
– Dr. Ute Schmiedel, University of Hamburg, Germany
– Dr. Vijay Kumar, Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, India