Land Degradation in the Sultanate of Oman: Reasons and Intervention Measures - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 399

Plan to combat Desertification (NAPCD). Such multitude of national rehabilitation
and land-use reform plans will need thorough monitoring and assessment studies,
firstly to identify the priority problem areas, and secondly, to identify and assess
the success of the rehabilitation measures. Computer and satellite technologies have
now availed great opportunities for such Pre-evaluations through the studies of the
Inter-relations between the General Circulation Models (GCMs) and the changes
in terrestrial eco-systems, enabling planners to identify the characteristics of the
favorable eco-systems, in what is now known as interactive modeling i.e. interaction
of Biosphere with atmosphere.

7.3 Output of the Project

The present plans for the combat of land degradation are no more than plans aiming
at a happier mode of co-existence with the desert. At the utmost they may aim at
arresting the desert expansion, but through continuously cost involving projects. A
permanent economic solution can only be attained if these plans aim at restoration
of the ecosystems which are favorable of attracting more precipitation and hence
one less drought prone because water from natural rain provides the elements of
re-generation and continuity at no cost. Dhofar region has the advantage that it
is confined between the Ocean and the Empty Quarter, hence the control volume
for the modeling procedures mentioned above can be easily defined. It will be a
great accomplishment if the simulation and modeling test prove that it is possible to
drive the rain belt over the mountain hump to the Najed, through reconstruction of
forest canopy and eco-systems in the plain and plateau favorable for attracting and
developing rain.

8 Process in Support of Preparation and Implementation

of Action Programs

Following the establishment of the Ministry of Environment in (MOE) 1984,
it was entrusted, among other responsibilities with the preparation of National
Conservation Strategy (NCS). In June 1989 the MOE organized a seminar for the
purpose in collaboration with UNEP and IUCN. It was during the seminar that
the new trends calling for the creation of close links between the environment
and development, and between the national strategies and the world conserva-
tion strategy (WCS), emerged for the first time. The seminar recommendations
included the preparation of a comprehensive and balanced National Strategy for
environment conservation, covering ecological aspects, nature resource evaluation
and definition of the relationship between the environment and development. Two