INTRODUCTION

The notions of sustainable land management and sustainable development are inherently attractive as ways of reconciling human needs with the limits of the biosphere. Policymakers, however, struggle enormously to translate these concepts into reality. Part of the struggle results from the fact that managing for sustainability requires integrating a variety of values – from economic to ecological to cultural – that in some cases cannot be integrated without difficult trade-offs. Since economic values have traditionally dominated land use and development decisions, policymakers often feel able only to “add on” or “layer on” other values on top of economic considerations. This is why ecological, cultural, and social values are so often additional considerations tacked on at the margins of an economic land use or development plan. Sustainable land management and sustainable development require turning this model on its head. Land use decisions should begin by recognizing the limitations of the biosphere and then aim to maximize social, cultural, and economic uses on the basis of the best potential output of land and resources. While there will still inevitably be difficult trade-offs to make with this approach, it allows policymakers to make overt decisions about how to distribute the limited resources of the biosphere among members of society, aiming to minimize the trade-offs as much as possible.

In areas where there is an opportunity for new land use planning, policymakers can try to incorporate this “bottom-up” approach to sustainable land management.