In this issue: Inter-Governmental Negotiating Committee for the Convention on combatting desertification; Agricultural Su'tainability and Soil Resilience; Salt-Affected Soils as the Ecoystein for Halophytes; Spatial Scales and Desenitication; Map of Human Induced Land Degradation in the Aral Sea Basin; Ground Radiometry for Measuring Healthy and Stressed Vegetation in a Simulated Arid Environment; Regional Development and Desertificalion Control through Ecological Farming - Three Examples in Argentina; Sustainable Development in Wadi Allagi in Egypt; Dcsertjiication in Northern Ghana.