<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Juntti, M</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Wilson, Geoff a.</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Conceptualizing desertification in Southern Europe: stakeholder interpretations and multiple policy agendas</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">European Environment</style></secondary-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">interpretations of desertiﬁcation</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Mediterranean</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">policy agendas</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">policy implementation</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">stakeholder interests</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2005</style></year></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">15</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">228-249</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">This paper explores the link between agricultural, environmental and structural policies and desertiﬁcation in Southern Europe. The focus is on the way policy goals evolve in the implementation process and become translated into actions at the operative level. The results derive from policy stakeholder interviews from four research areas situated in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The signiﬁcance of policies as drivers of desertiﬁcation varies between the case study areas, and harmful land management practices often result from power imbalances between interest groups involved in land-use planning and policy implementation rather than from ﬂaws in the policies themselves. The vagueness of the deﬁnition of what ‘desertiﬁcation’ constitutes allows for different interpretations of its nature, signiﬁcance and the consequent weight it is given in land management decision-making, thus lending itself to be both misinterpreted and misappropriated by different stakeholder interests. The paper discusses the interplay between ﬁve different discourses of desertiﬁcation and four distinct agendas of policy implementation and land use. The agendas either enhance or mitigate desertiﬁcation and represent the interests of actors who have acquired a powerful position in the network of stakeholders, often relying on, and simultaneously maintaining, discourses and structures that lend them ﬁrst right to decision-making over the natural resources of the locality</style></abstract></record></records></xml>