Mr. Walter Erdelen, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO

Over the last three days, we have listened to a multitude of speakers from every continent. We have seen the problems of desertification in its different facets and yet, regardless where we are in the world's drylands, we have also learned that we often encounter the same problems when it comes to the sustainable management of arid zones. I was impressed by the accumulation of knowledge and expertise on drylands that is available among our conference participants based on your individual or collective research over many years.

But it is now time to look into the future, which is why we have called this conference ‘The Future of Drylands’. Answering a question brought up in the press conference following the Opening Session: yes, drylands do and must have a future! We must all work together for the drylands not to be neglected as remote and peripheral areas or considered as marginal with respect to their economic value. We hope that the Tunis Declaration that we have just adopted will be a major step forward on the joint path of the scientific community and decision-makers to help to promote sustainable development in the world's drylands and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. To this end, we must promote and apply sound science for dryland development.