The World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD) is observed every year on 17 June to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification. Many countries, groups and individuals celebrate and observe WDCD by organizing a variety of outreach activities and awareness raising events.

We are pleased to announce to all interested institutions and experts the WOCAT Symposium that will be hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia and will be held on Monday 13 May to Tuesday 14 May 2019 in Ethiopia.

The four-day Forum is hosted by DS SLM Thailand and is organized jointly by FAO, Land Development Department (LDD), Soil and Fertilizer Society of Thailand (SFST) and the Kasetsart University. The Forum will be held during the Annual Kasetsart University Agricultural Fair to also allow participants to witness a range of agricultural SLM approaches and technologies implemented in Thailand.

The Global SLM Database is now available in Chinese and Thai. Our thanks for the Chinese translation go to Mr. Sun Guoji, Director General of Department of Combating Desertification, National Forestry and Grassland Administration; and for the Thai translation to Dr. Bunjirtluk Jintaridth and Mr. Kamchai Kanjanatanaseth, Land Development Department (LDD), Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Thailand; Dr. Pitayakon Limtong, Soil and Fertilizer Society of Thailand.

Traditional systems of land and water use in Africa are increasingly under pressure. In the “Water and Land Resource Centre” project, scientists from CDE, CETRAD Kenya, and WLRC Ethiopia worked with land users and decision-makers in Kenya and Ethiopia to develop locally adapted solutions for managing water and land sustainably and resolving conflicts. Now they have summarized experiences and highlights from 40 years of transformative research in the book “Shaping Sustainable Socio-Ecological Landscapes in Africa”.