Risza

The RISZA network emerged in 2017 as a CONACYT Thematic Network to promote the adoption of multilateral and interinstitutional collaboration schemes, inclusive of local residents and decision-makers, and to establish robust collaborations with members from Latin America, North Africa, and Southern Europe. After two years, at the end of the federal program, it ceased to be a CONACYT Thematic Network but continued as RISZA with the members of the Advisory Technical Committee to pursue our mission, vision, and objectives. Arid and semi-arid zones cover 47% of the Earth's land surface, where 40% of the human population resides. They constitute one of the world's largest, most diverse, and vulnerable social-ecological systems (SES) susceptible to desertification and climate change.

Additionally, these areas harbor 30% of the world's biodiversity and cultural hotspots, hosting a wealth of traditional ecological knowledge held by peasant farmers, herders, fishermen, and ranchers. The interplay between land degradation, climate change, loss of biodiversity and cultural heritage, and human well-being requires a collective, intersectoral approach through the development of adaptation and mitigation measures for climate change, land degradation control, poverty and inequality reduction, protection of arid/semi-arid ecosystems, and the promotion of sustainable development.