Soil, like air and water, is essential to life on earth. Over 90% of all human food and livestock feed are produced from the land and from soils that vary in quality and extent. Of the earth's 13,000 million hectares of ice-free land surface, only 3% is covered with highly productive soils, just 6% with moderately productive and 13% with slightly productive soils. The remaining 78% of the land has limitations that inhibit the sustainable cultivation of its soils sometimes even for grazing. However, it is in such marginal lands that most land and soil degradation occurs. This volume contains papers from an International Conference of the Land Conservation (LANDCON).