International Workshop Challenges in Desertification Research and Answers from Europe: Launching the European DesertNet.

The development of the European Scientific Network to Combat Desertification (European DesertNet) is well under way. On the 6th September 2005, the Declaration of the European DesertNet was opened for signature. So far, scientists from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and thus scientists from 13 European countries, have signed the declaration.
The next step is to consolidate this newly emerged scientific network and to introduce it to the global scientific community, the political decision-makers, the UN bodies, the non-governmental agencies and to civil society. We therefore regard the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD 2006) as an important timeframe in which to define our structure and aims and to present them to our future partners at the national, European and international level.
The workshop will enable us to get to know one another and also to discuss in detail a clear structure for our European network and to formulate our aims and activities at the European level. In these processes, it is very important that as many of the members of the European DesertNet as possible participate in the workshop so that many perspectives and ideas can be considered for the definition of the network structure.