Framework for evaluation of sustainable land management: A case study of two rain-fed cereal-livestock farming systems in the Black Chernozemic soil zone of southern Alberta, Canada

Abstract

The Framework for Evaluation of Sustainable Land Management (FESLM) was used to assess the sustainablility of two land-use systems in the Canadian Prairies. The FESLM provided a means of identifying the factors impacting on sustainability, the processes by which these factors operate and interact, and the indicators and thresholds by which they could be measured to attain an assessment end point. On the basis of the framework, it was possible to expand sustainability assessment beyond traditional factors of productivity and economic viability to include ones pertaining to production risk, protection of the natural resource base, and social acceptability. In conducting the FESLM-based analysis, the decision-making characteristics of the producer were identified as important components of sustainability. Preliminary indications are that substantially greater amounts of farm-specific and regional data are required to make a conclusive FESLM-based sustainability assessment. Nevertheless, application of the framework suggests that, for the farming systems and the type of producer under consideration, the conservation-based land-use system is more sustainable than the conventional land-use system. Key words: Sustainable land management, Black Chernozemic soil zone, livestock farming