Land degradation is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries. However, its impact is especially severe on the livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. Despite the severe impact of land degradation on the poor and the crucial role that land plays in human welfare and development, investments in sustainable land management (SLM) are low, especially in developing countries.
In 1911, the Weeks Law is one of several in USA aimed at sustainable forests and water supply and quality, and most of these degraded lands acquired by Secretary of Agriculture in eastern USA are national forests. Available to the public, each national forest has a forest plan, EIS, and various projects directed toward multiple use and sustainable management. There are also national, state and in some instances activity based best management practices to help protect water quality. The US Forest Service and each national forest has infornation available on the internet. You might look up associated laws, regulations, forest planning and activity plans for examples. A substantial amount of work on national forests has also been aimed at land and resource stabilization and restoration to a functional condition.
Thanks Dr. William F. Hansen. Let us listen more from experts, particularly from developing countries most vulnerable to threats from climate change.
Land reform can affect sustainable land management favourably or unfavourably. Farmers would ideally develop terraces on hilly land, plough parallel to contours, etc, which could be facilitated by land reform. Unfortunately some village land reallocation plans involve sharing all available qualities of soil, which may cause allocated strips to be ploughed up-and-down hills (I've seen this in pre-war Syria). Another strategy is to use planned crop rotations, which could be easier to plan under land reform in a village situation.
Land degradation especially in countries having arid to semi-arid climate is a continuous process and is increasing due to positive salt balance. In addition, the area under agriculture is decreasing due to rapid urbanization and industrialization. The future of agriculture lies in the development of salt tolerant varieties to sustain production on salt-affected lands.
Dear Abdul,
Am tempted go with Antony on this! However, for developing and emerging countries, what would make more sense for us is land zoning.
With appropriate and effective policies on land zonation, its easier to mainstream development strategies, adopt sustainable intensification and best-bet practices (SAPs and BBPs) that foster sustainable land management hence addressing the rampant land degradation in most developing countries.
Cheers
I would suggest you to take a look on case studies and other product of european project PLUREL. Here is the link http://www.plurel.net/
There is extensive literature on policies for sustainable land management. You may find a number of empirical studies at www.ilri.org and www.ifpri.org by using key words policy, land management, Ethiopia, East Africa,Kenya and Uganda.
Using land to mean broadly to include soil, water and vegetation, a wide range of policy issues may be applied to achieve sustainable management. One case study is attached for illustration.
Hope this is useful
https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=7vTpCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA432&lpg=PA432&dq=feasible+policy+and+development+strategies+that+enable+and+catalyze+sustainable+land+management+(SLM)+actions&source=bl&ots=IgJLtkqn3w&sig=YoAASyrgjmMnUKJGj20-q_eJeKQ&hl=tr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsg8yG6_LYAhVHiiwKHZNVC08Q6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=feasible%20policy%20and%20development%20strategies%20that%20enable%20and%20catalyze%20sustainable%20land%20management%20(SLM)%20actions&f=false
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