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Deliberations and comments during the workshop resulted in the identification of several issues of common concern to participating countries and organizations. Prominent among these are the following:
1. Land tenure and grazing rights are recognized as important issues requiring immediate attention. These two related issues should be discussed and settled to the satisfaction of users according to national policies, prior to embarking on large scale rangeland development and improvement programmes. The different changes affecting land use and living conditions in rural areas, as a result of environmental and socio-political factors, have their impact on the range resource and the traditional rules and controls that regulate the utilization of this resource and determine the relation between the land and groups of users that subsist on it. Hastily adopted and implemented policies that ignored traditional tenure rights without providing effective alternatives lead to further complications, namely encroachment of other uses on rangelands, increased grazing pressure, accelerated misuse of resources and ultimately land degradation. All these changes, conflicting land uses and the complex nature of grazingland tenure necessitate consideration of this issue with a view to formulating modified tenure rights that can cope with the new realities, satisfy national policies and meet pastoral groups requirements.
2. Traditional pastoral institutions and readerships have an important role to play in land resources conservation and rational use. However, for the continuation of their role and in order that they can constitute officially recognized organizations, they may require modification to cope with the changes and new realities imposed by local conflicts, environmental hazards and socio-political changes. Such organizations can make the voice of pastoralists heard and assist in well-conceived pastoral development programmes and in social and cultural promotion.
3. The occurrence of drought and other environmental hazards aggravate the suffering and harsh conditions to which pastoral groups are exposed. Those who own small herds are most vulnerable. Planning departments and relevant institutions should develop their abilities of early warning action against drought and other hazards. In order to reduce the negative impacts of such phenomena, development plans should provide more assistance and give sufficient attention to the creation of non-pastoral employment opportunities and alternative sources of income that will enable devastated pastoralists to obtain food, shelter and energy.
4. Involvement of pastoralists and bedouins and their full participation in conservation and development programmes are absolutely crucial for the ultimate achievement of goals. Overlooking these groups during the preparation of development plans and implementation of top-down type of interventions are regarded as prominent causes of failure of such programmes.
5. Land degradation has taken place and is increasing in magnitude, inspite of efforts exerted by the governments of the Region to rehabilitate and restore affected areas. Although factors such as cultivation of marginal lands and destruction of vegetative cover are widely accused as causative factors. yet the weakening or abolition of traditional institutions that guard and control land utilization. and the poor demarcation of land responsibility have encouraged misuse and accelerated degradation
6. Coordination of activities of the different government bodies dealing with rangelands, livestock anti natural resources conservation and development is regarded essential. Resources and efforts are effectively utilized by adopting the integrated approach, where various interrelated disciplines collaborate to implement specific programmes or tasks. To achieve this modalities a betterenabling framework should be developed to ensure close and effective links and coordinated efforts.
7. The danger of losing forage species germplasm and biological diversity due to rapid land degradation and the large scale destruction of vegetative cover are matters of concern. Reports of disappearance and scarcity of several plant and animal species indicate the alarming magnitude of losses in genetic resources. Although awareness about endangered species and the need to give more attention to the conservation of biological diversity and plant genetic resources is increasing yet efforts done to date are meager.
8. Countries of the Region utilize different methodologies for rangeland monitoring and vegetation mapping - a reflection of the influence of various schools. Because of this resulting data and maps do not lend themselves for comparison or development purposes. This situation confirms the need for immediate action to rectify this disparity and to enhance standardization of methodologies.
9. Space and time differences have resulted in wide variability in local names of plants in the Arab countries. Unfortunately, erosion of traditional knowledge lead to new generations of pastoralists and bedouins becoming ignorant about the names of plants in their environment including those essential for the survival of their stock. A thorough review of these names and adoption of an acceptable system of nomenclature seems appropriate.
10. In many countries, legal framework for range conservation and development is lacking. In recognition of this important issue adoption of appropriate legislation to protect and develop rangelands and control encroachment by other uses is required.
11. Marginal lands, one of the most fragile ecosystems, have been subjected to ploughing and indiscriminate vegetation removal resulting in large scale degradation. Pressure on this fragile ecosystem is accentuated by rapid growth of both human and livestock populations. Development of integrated crop-livestock systems, encouraging the use of shallow soil cultivation and considering other non-destructive uses of land, as wildlife and natural reserves have all been highlighted as rational uses of marginal lands.