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The Workshop on Research and Training for Management of Arid Lands was held in the Institute of Geography at the University of Hamburg. On behalf of the United Nations University and the participants, I express deep appreciation to the Director of the Institute, Professor H. Mensching, and to Dr. F. Ibrahim, for making the arrangements and providing support for the meeting, and for their hospitality. The co-operation and assistance of the secretarial staff of the Institute are particularly appreciated.
The Workshop was formally opened by the President of the University of Hamburg, Dr. Fischer-Appelt, who later held a reception for the participants at the University Staff Centre, and the opening session was introduced by the Dean of Geoscience, Professor G. Fischer. This sponsorship and hospitality from the University of Hamburg are gratefully acknowledged.
The programme included a tour of the Port and City of Hamburg, and thanks are due to Dr. U. Wolfram of the Institute of Geography for her enthusiastic guidance.
Participants at the Workshop (see Appendix B) included staff members of the University of Khartoum, a number of investigators engaged in commissioned studies under the Arid Lands Sub-programme, and many who had previously attended that initiatory workshop, held at Khartoum in October 1978, of which the Proceedings have already been published by the United Nations University as No. 2 in the Technical Report Series of their Natural Resources Programme (1979), and which the Hamburg Workshop was designed to reinforce and extend. There was a particularly welcome attendance by representatives of United Nations organizations with related interests, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO).
The objectives of the Workshop were:
1. To review progress on supportive investigations and
research projects under the Arid Lands Sub-programme and to
advise on further priorities within the sub programme.
2. To discuss the thematic evolution of the Arid Lands
Sub-programme towards strategies for development, extension, and
management.
3. To confirm progress at the Institute of Environmental Studies
at the University of Khartoum, and to discuss further
developments there.
4. To discuss needs and opportunities in research and training
for arid lands development in Africa south of the Sahara, and the
possible structure and operation of an African network linked
with the University of Khartoum or other associated institutions
of the United Nations University.
5. To advise on curricula for training programmes.
6. To discuss possible collaboration with other United Nations
organizations.
The deliberations of the Workshop (see Appendix C) mainly took the form of small concurrent working-group sessions, which received reports on submitted papers, followed by plenary sessions which discussed the working-group reports and at which some more general papers were given. There was no formal moving of recommendations, but the summary reports of sessions contained numerous suggestions and comments, and I am most grateful to those participants who helped with the preparation of the sessional reports.
The text that follows includes commentaries on discussion sessions, and on those devoted to the presentation of preliminary reports on commissioned research projects that are planned to appear later in technical publications of the United Nations University. Other contributed papers are included here in complete, albeit shortened, form. Some changes have been made from the order of the Workshop programme where this seemed to improve the sequence of the Proceedings.
J. A. Mabbutt
Editor
Co-ordinator, Arid Lands Sub-programme
United Nations University