Highlands and drylands: Mountains, a source of resilience in arid regions

This publication has three main objectives: (i) to provide an overall vision of the ecological, social and cultural features of dryland mountain socio-ecosystems, highlighting those processes and elements which have determined their resilience to past and present disturbances, describing current and future impacts, and offering a perspective on conservation and sustainable development based on successful examples from all regions of the world; (ii) to demonstrate the importance of investing human and financial resources in dryland mountains in the framework of the global effort to limit the impact of global change on the livelihoods of human societies and on the natural and cultural wealth of our planet; and (iii) to raise the awareness of development experts, donors and policy and decision makers about the relevance, extent, main challenges, solutions and good practices developed to address desertification and development issues in dryland mountain ecosystems worldwide.