The book is clearly written and concise. It illuminates prevalent and emerging thinking about as-yet-unsolved land degradation problems. Analysis of disappointing past soil and water conservation efforts was inadequate in both perception and rigour, so the book may be an inadequate guide to future success, as its tendency is to recommend ‘more of the same’ even though re-articulated.

Hidden but imperfect assumptions of the nature of soil's productivity and the causes of land degradation underlie assessment of the problems and their solutions. The ‘flavour’ is still that land degradation is an unavoidable concomitant of agriculture in the tropics, a force against which the land has to be protected, and that – as well as remedying the underlying socioeconomic causes of soil impoverishment – ‘SWC’ measures, when applied, can counter it. Mention of underlying and interlinked key ecological realities for conservation and sustainability – the dynamics of soil biology, soil porosity, soil carbon – are scattered through the text but not yet given due prominence. A thought ‘outside the box’ brings their significance into focus : the spaces in soil are likely more significant than the solid particles with respect to soil productivity, to its sustainability, and to landscape hydrology. This view has far-reaching implications, offering insights to the past, a framework for the present, and a basis for sustainable land management in future.

Reasoned working from better understanding the microscopics of soil/plant/people systems up towards framing the macroscopics of policies and financing will prove more effective than planning actions from the top downwards.