From Oct 12 to 14, International Conference on Combating Land degradation in Agricultural Areas(LANDCON1010) and The 1st Council Meeting of World Association of Soil and Water Conservation ( WASWC), initiated by WASWC and Chinese Society of Water and Soil Conservation (CSWAC), sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Water Resources, the People’s Government of Shaanxi province， hosted by Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Resources(ISWC), were held in Xi’an. Almost 300 scholars , experts and leaders from the U.S, Australia, France, Germany， India， New Zealand, Thailand, the Netherland China and other 36 countries in the fields of land resource management, combating land degradation and land desertification control attended the conference. Among them, more than 100 are foreign delegates. Academician Ding Zhongli, the deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, vice minister Liu Ning of the Ministry of Water Resources, Yao Yinliang, the vice governor of Shaanxi People’s Government, Academician Sun Honglie, the former vice director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Miodrag ZIatic, the president of WASWC,　Prof. Coen Ritsema of Wageningen University, also the program sponsor of the  EU FP6 Integrated Project on Desertification Mitigation and Remediation of Land (DESIRE),  Prof. José Luis Rubio, the president of the European Land Conservation Association, the academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering Shan Lun attended the opening ceremony or made keynote Speeches. The director of ISWC， researcher Liu Guobin presided the conference.

During the session of three-day conference, the delegates exchanged ideas with regards to issues concerning the land degradation and its development process, the mechanism and driving factors of land degradation, control methods and its patterns of land degradation, the environmental effects of land degradation and the sustainable development of the regional economy, the global change and land degradation, and the prevention and control of land degradation. More than 80 people made reports in the 4 branch halls. This international academic conference provides an platform for domestic and foreign experts and scholars to exchange ideas and share their findings, promote the improvements of research levels in land degradation control and soil and water conservation.