REPORT ON IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS.

This paper presents a summary conference report on the title subject, focusing on some of the basic scientific aspects. An initial group of contributions concerns the role played in the economy of the planet by tropical forests, and the problems related to their conservation and management. An important issue is how to use these forests without causing severe degradation of the soil resources and environments. Other contributions on desertification analyse the settlement processes in arid zones, such as Arava in Israel. The problem, however, is mainly examined from the economic point of view. The other great ecosystem, which poses enormous environmental problems, is the Ocean and the related coastal and marginal humid areas where more than one half of humanity lives. In spite of the numerous studies conducted on the sea from the geological, physical, chemical, and biological point of view, many aspects are still obscure. Unfortunately, very few contributions in this Conference have dealt with this liquid universe, the Ocean. These and additional conference subjects are summarized in the paper.