Agro-ecological zones and Resource Management Domains (RMDs) in relation to land use planning

Abstract

Land use planning, or at least land resources management, is one of the key issues in the modern development of rural areas. However, only a holistic approach, which would include both bio-geo-physical and socio-economic aspects, can deal adequately with such complex planning problems. FAO, as UN Task Manager for Chapter 10 of UNCED Agenda 21, has proposed a new approach to Interactive Land Use Planning for sustainable Land Resources Management. The guiding principles are: production and conservation incentives, stakeholder negotiation on resource management and provision of information to support negotiation and decisions. Effective negotiation and decision making on land use cannot take place without a knowledge base that is accessible to the stakeholders. The two essential components of the knowledge base are information and education. The basis for interactive land use planning is a spatial zoning of the resources across the natural land units. Zoning itself concerns a subdivision of rural lands on the basis of the physical and biological or agro-ecological characteristics of the various natural land units, as well as the prevailing socio-economic conditions. Together, they form the basis for the delineation of land Resource Management Domains (RMDs), i.e. rural areas where both agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions are so similar that one can expect that development-or conservation-oriented intervention packages can be successfully transferred from one site or farm to another. The FAO integrated approach includes Land Resources Information Systems (LRIS) as an essential tool for analysis of land resources information. The FAO LRIS is conceived as a modular toolbox which can be implemented at different scales. It is currently implemented using GIS databases, AEZ models of land suitability and land productivity assessment, multicriteria tools for the analysis of land use options and user-oriented interfaces to enable easy and transparent interaction of the user with the system. AEZ/LRIS procedures can be used in the delineation of the RMDs which provide a practical basis for interactive land use planning. The collaborative work of all the actors, including decision makers, technicians and stakeholders, is essential to the success of such integrated approaches.