The overall goal of this book is to increase the size of and more widely disseminate the "portfolio" of research and other works aimed at protecting and sustainably utilizing biodiversity of global significance in arid and semiarid areas in developing nations. Specifically, the book focuses on best practices and lessons learnt for science, for public policy and management, for increasing the participation of local people in decision making, and for enhancing partnerships and capacity building between institutions. In part, the successful practices and programs described in this book are a follow up to the Earth Summit Conference and the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) and, hence, provide examples of understudied measures by Southern nations to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity.