'Global Deserts Outlook' presents a panorama of the environmental status of the world's deserts: their location and extent, uniqueness and vulnerability, biodiversity, and natural resources. The report provides a balanced picture of deserts as ecosystems which form a special part of the world's natural and cultural heritage, and not simply as land that is the end result of the process of desertification. Few places on earth contain a richer collection of natural adaptations to the environment.