Sustainable Land Management (SLM) refers to the use of renewable land resources (soils, water, plants, and animals) for the production of goods – to meet changing human needs – while at the same time protecting the long-term productive potential of these resources.

The main concern of SLM is not to preserve nature in a pristine state, but to coexist with nature in a sustainable manner so that the productive, physiological, cultural and ecological functions of natural resources are maintained for the benefit of society. SLM tries to harmonise the complementary but often conflicting goals of production and environmental protection.


GEF (Global Environment Facility), the major funding organisation for global environmental issues, has acknowledged the importance of SLM by designating land degradation as one of its focal areas in October 2002.

> See the GEF Operational Programme on Sustainable Land Management for further information.

The designation of this new focal area underlines the importance of the issue, as well as the need for integrated approaches that address both the aspect of poverty and the aspect of global land degradation.

CDE’s approach to SLM
Today, as opposed to some decades ago, only a few countries in the world still have enough spare land resources to meet the needs of their expanding populations. Most countries are forced to increase and intensify production on land that is already under cultivation. Usually, this land is also subject to resource degradation. Furthermore, in most developing countries, the majority of people are still engaged in agriculture, livestock production, forestry, and fishery, and their livelihoods and options for economic development are directly linked to the quality of their land and its resources. For such rural societies, SLM is the basis for sustainable development.

Blueprint definitions will not help to determine whether land management in a real-life context – e.g. that of a development project – is moving towards or away from sustainability. Instead, stakeholders need to define what they mean by “sustainable” for the context in question. In CDE’s experience, SLM is best approached through the social/institutional, economic, and ecological dimensions of sustainability. For a rural development project, this means that land management becomes more sustainable if progress can be made in all dimensions and at several levels at the same time

 

For example, the goods and services provided must be compatible with local social structures (social and institutional dimension, adaptability), the livelihoods of stakeholders must be ensured (economic dimension, viability), and resource degradation processes must be minimised (ecological dimension, protection). As long as there is movement towards unsustainability in any of the three dimensions, development cannot be considered sustainable.