ABSTRACT
I would like to discuss critically two recent development plans for the Sahara and their likely problematic outcomes. The first and most ambitious is the UNESCO (2003) pan-Saharan framework plan for tourism development, which provides guidelines for other international and national development agencies that are invited to use them as the basis for their own action plans. 1 The second is one such action plan, designed by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), 2 for the Algerian Great South, Phase II (2004) of which has been elaborated in close coordination with UNESCO.
