Land Resource Management

LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Land is a finite resource. If land is managed properly and in accordance with natural cycles, resource renewal becomes infinite and scarcity disappears. By examining all uses of land by humans and non-humans in an integrated manner, it makes it possible to minimize conflicts, to make the most beneficial trade-offs and to link social and economic development with environmental protection and enhancement, thus helping to achieve the objectives of sustainable development.

OVERVIEW

• Land use planning and management
• Land use development and management
• Individual, local, and regional coordination and cooperation

LAND USE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Integrated land management facilitates appropriate choices and trade-offs, thus maximizing sustainable productivity and use. Opportunities to allocate land to different uses arise in the course of potential settlement or development projects or in a sequential fashion as lands become available on the market. This in turn provides opportunities to support traditional patterns of sustainable land management or to assign protected status for conservation of biological diversity or critical ecological services.

Ideas for those interested in implementation

• To develop options and actions to support the best possible use of land and the sustainable management of land resources
• To improve and support people interested in land use planning and managemet, encouraging working together in consensus groups
• To create programs to facilitate the active involvement and participation of all concerned, particularly communities and people at the local level, in decision-making on land use and management
• Develop integrated goal-setting that take into account environmental, social, demographic and economic issues
• Review laws, regulations and enforcement ideas, in order to identify improvements that would help to support sustainable land use and management of land resources

LAND USE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Ideas for those interested in implementation

• Explore and develop planning and management systems that facilitate the integration of environmental components such as air, water, land and other natural resources (for example a watershed or ecosystem)
• Support management systems for land and natural resources by including appropriate traditional and indigenous methods, such as, for example, pastoralism, traditional Islamic land reserves, and terraced agriculture
• Compile detailed land capability inventories to guide sustainable land resources allocation and management
• Create groups and plan and take actions to create sustainable development practices on land and ensure appropriate use of land resources
• Support and create open source information lines, systematic observation and assessment systems for assessing development of sustainability

INDIVIDUAL, LOCAL, AND REGIONAL COORDINATION AND COOPERATION

Ideas for those interested in implementation

• Study and design regional infrastructures to support programs for land-use and physical planning
• Community information exchange on experiences with the process and results of integrated and participatory planning and management
• Emphasize interdisciplinary and integrative approaches in the curricula of schools
• Educate communities on land use planning and management techniques applied successfully elsewhere