Dear Participants,
Thank you very much for your lively responses to my first post on the Workshop Blog, “Opening Statement”. It is good to learn that participants are from diverse backgrounds and thus will bring a wide range of experiences into the workshop.
My next question is about your expectations towards the workshop. Kindly click on “About this Workshop” and then read about the details of the workshop objectives and content.
After that, post comments on areas of research, issues and aspects that you are specifically interested in. This will help the trainers and resource persons to design the workshop content in a way that is most beneficial to the invited participants.
Please make sure to leave your comments in this section of the blog - “Your Expectations”.
The trainers and resource persons look forward to reading from you!
Kind regards,
Michael
Jul 21, 2010 @ 17:19:55
Dear all,
Drylands cover about 41% of Earth’s land surface, compromising half of the world’s developing countries and home to 35% of the world’s human population. Unfortunately, environmental degradation is recognized to be most intense in arid and semi-arid dryland areas. For instance, in three decades (1976-2008) 38% of dryland forests have disappeared in the Mediterranean ecoregion of central Chile (a semiarid area). Such overexploitation has caused a serious decline in ecosystem services, indicated by severe soil erosion and decreased availability and quality of water. This is not an exclusive phenomenon of central Chile. Globally, existing water shortages in drylands are projected to increase over time due to population increase, land cover change, and global climate change.
Therefore, as a researcher interested in ecological restoration and environmental economics, my expectations toward this workshop is to reach a better understanding about the role of dryland forests in water regulation processes, and their hydrological functions within these ecosystems. As a response to the widespread degradation of dryland areas in Latin America, investment in natural capital restoration is increasing and, therefore, we need to understand how restoration projects could be planned for the increase of water provision.
Best wishes,
Ignacio.
Jul 28, 2010 @ 07:55:29
Dear all,
.
In general, what will be given during the workshop meets my expectation. As person with tree physiological and silviculture backgrounds, I expect that during the workshop, how trees/stands/forest will adapt to the changing of the climate, toward drought and possibly salinity, and also altering temperature will also be one of the topics included. On the other hand, I think it will also be useful to rise topic on how forest improves water availability and quality of the surrounding environment. But I believe these will already be covered
well, see you all next month..
ef