This report fits into an overall objective of helping the FAO analyze the role that local knowledge and management systems (LKMS) of natural resources can play in FAO's development projects and programmes. The approach of this report centers on a literature review of existing information on arid and semi-arid Africa. This includes North Africa, the Sahara, the Sahel, the semi-arid parts of the Sudan zone, and the arid zones of southern Africa. A few pertinent examples from other areas are also provided. The main emphasis is placed on the use and management of natural resources, primarily vegetation, but also water and wildlife. The majority of production systems in these arid zones in one way or another rely on livestock (ranging from settled agropastoralists to continuously mobile nomads). Thus, pastoral systems, defined as any production system that relies for more than 10% of its output on livestock, is the main focus of the report, but other production systems that rely on resources in their natural state, such as hunting, gathering, fishing, and wood collecting, will also be considered.

This issue of Unasylva focuses on Africa. A large part of the continent has been overrun by drought in successive years, and millions of people are exposed to hunger and malnutrition. In many African countries, cultivation is because of hunger - rapidly expanding into forest land and areas of low rainfall. This process, coupled with necessarily unmanaged exploitation for fuelwood, fodder and other basic goods and services that forests and trees provide, has led to a progressively increasing rate of deforestation. That has brought about general environmental degradation and instability and, in their wake, depletion of the resource base and even desertification over vast areas of land.

This issue of Unasylva focuses on Africa. A large part of the continent has been overrun by drought in successive years, and millions of people are exposed to hunger and malnutrition. In many African countries, cultivation is because of hunger - rapidly expanding into forest land and areas of low rainfall. This process, coupled with necessarily unmanaged exploitation for fuelwood, fodder and other basic goods and services that forests and trees provide, has led to a progressively increasing rate of deforestation. That has brought about general environmental degradation and instability and, in their wake, depletion of the resource base and even desertification over vast areas of land