Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on acronyms and currency
- 1 Concern for land
- 2 Land resource issues
- 3 Resource survey and land evaluation
- 4 Competition for land
- 5 Working with farmers
- 6 Land use planning
- 7 Land degradation
- 8 Global issues: climatic change and biodiversity
- 9 Monitoring change: land resource indicators
- 10 Costing the earth: the economic value of land resources
- 11 Land management: caring for resources
- 12 Research and technology
- 13 Land, food, and people
- 14 Population, poverty, and conflict
- 15 Awareness, attitudes, and action
- Notes
- References
- Index
6 - Land use planning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on acronyms and currency
- 1 Concern for land
- 2 Land resource issues
- 3 Resource survey and land evaluation
- 4 Competition for land
- 5 Working with farmers
- 6 Land use planning
- 7 Land degradation
- 8 Global issues: climatic change and biodiversity
- 9 Monitoring change: land resource indicators
- 10 Costing the earth: the economic value of land resources
- 11 Land management: caring for resources
- 12 Research and technology
- 13 Land, food, and people
- 14 Population, poverty, and conflict
- 15 Awareness, attitudes, and action
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Resource surveys and land evaluation studies are only a means to an end. It is at the further stage of land use planning, and projects in the area of natural resource management, that action gets taken. Land use planning does not only mean making plans; it covers their implementation and management, monitoring of progress, and revision. The most important scales are national level, for policy guidance and priorities, and district or project level, where developments are put into practice. Planning must be focused on the problems of land users, but these must be reconciled with other interests. The wide range of objectives, covering production, conservation, and the different sectors of land use, means that no standardized method is possible. The best that can be done is to provide a set of guidelines giving basic steps, with checklists of activities, together with decision support systems. Past experience and informed judgement will always be needed. Natural resource aspects should play a continuing role during the later stages of project planning, including during implementation and monitoring of progress.
The procedures of natural resource survey, land evaluation, and participatory methods, are carried out with the intention of improving the people's welfare. Throughout these stages, however, no one has yet taken any action to change, hopefully to improve, the present situation. The old land use systems are still being practised, soil is eroding, vegetation degrading, crop yields remain low, and the poor are still hungry – or whatever may be the problems of the region concerned.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Land ResourcesNow and for the Future, pp. 83 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998