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International Conference : GreenArid What do we know about the potential impacts of Greening Scenarios in semi-arid regions ?

Date and venue : 5-7 November 2014, Dakar, Senegal
Closing Date for Submission of Abstracts: 3rd October 2014
For more information, Here.
Objectives:   The   GreenArid   conference   has   for   ambition   to   gather international experts specialists of disciplines so diverse as e.g. climatology, agronomy,  forestry,  pedology,  ecology,  hydrology,  economy,  sociology,  …

Their knowledge of how land-use changes (in whatever direction: greening or desertification) may affect the many variables they are interested will be shared,  discussed  and  capitalized  in  the  form  of  written  synthesis  and suggested future directions for research.Expected outputs from the conference will be:

i) A special issue of a peer-reviewed and highly ranked international journal,
ii) One synthesis paper on potential impacts on both environmental and socio-economic conditions,
iii) Recommendations on future studies to be carried out to increase our understanding and therefore our ability to inject more and better scientific knowledge in the decision-making processes,
iv) A policy brief for policy makers.

The conference will be organized through plenary sessions and poster sessions  covering  the  widest   range  of   disciplines   and  topics   (e.g. climatology,  agronomy,  forestry,  pedology,  ecology,  hydrology,  economy, sociology). Particular emphasis will be put on offering sessions that mix disciplinary perspectives as well as users-oriented discussions investigating the relationships between environment, climate and society. The total number of participants (including invited speakers) is limited to ~50 to ensure lively discussions among the various disciplines, and make sure those may be translated into high level publications.

More  information  will  be  available  soon.  To  receive  the  key  information about the conference, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

We  invite  you  to  submit  an  abstract  for  oral  or  poster  communications. Within the constraints of the conference venue, everyone is welcome to submit  an  abstract  until  the  3nd  October  2014.  Abstracts  for  oral presentation can be submitted in English (preferably) or french and have a limit of 300 words. Please send abstracts by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Context:  Semi  arid  regions  are  specially  sensitive  to  any  environmental change (climate, land use and cover) and may often be seen as vulnerable areas to be protected as a shield against an undesired expansion of arid zones.  A number  of  socio-economic  or  political  decisions  have  therefore recently been launched to try and address such protection. Among them, greening  solutions  have  been  proposed,  such  as  the  Chinese  and  the African Great Green Wall.

However, such initiative may be rather costly and might lead in some cases to adverse impacts affecting e.g. ecosystems and societal functioning, water resources, agricultural and forestry productivity, local to regional weather and climate, environmental pollution or restoration, biodiversity, agro-pastoral and economic activities. They may moreover be region-specific. There is therefore a real need to adopt a broad scientific view  encompassing  various  disciplines,  capitalizing  on  expertise  from several regions of the world and building a bridge between scientific outputs and stakeholders activities.

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