In recent years, sustainable management of ecologically fragile regions has received increasing attention globally. The eco-system quality evaluation and integrative management are widely recognized as important foundation to achieve sustainable development in degraded semiarid and arid regions. At present, China's western arid and semi-arid regions are faced with a series of ecological degradations such as soil erosion, water shortage, and land degradation at a time of global warming. Under the sponsorship of "111" Program, the 2^nd International Workshop on Ecosystem Assessment and Management (EAM) was held in Lanzhou from July 20 to 25, 2010, jointly hosted by Lanzhou University (LZU) and the University of Western Australia, (UWA) funded by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and the Ministry of Education of China. In addition, Acta Ecologica Sinica, Agricultural Ecological Professional Committee of Ecological Society of China, and the Gansu Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs also strongly supported the Workshop. The Workshop focused on agricultural development in arid and semi-arid areas and the status quo of the ecological environment and social development of the region. The theme of the Workshop was "Climate change and dryland agricultural ecosystem management". The objective was to develop a methodology of assessment and management of semi-arid rainfed agro-ecosystem and oasis agro-ecosystem in arid areas. There were five topics in the workshop: the tempo-spatial patterns of ecosystem, global change ecology, the adaptive mechanism of plants under adverse stresses, plant and soil relations and the strategic management of ecosystem. Twenty-eight experts from abroad and home were invited to the workshop to present current developments on global climate changes and ecosystem management, with emphasis on how to improve the productivity and sustainable development of the arid and semi-arid agro-ecosystems under climate change. The workshop was attended by more than 200 participants. Future developmental trends and opportunities in terms of EAM were discussed and the next workshop was planned.