Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 81 (2000) 81
Preface
Land quality indicators
This collection of eight papers result from a Satellite Symposium on Land Quality organized by the World Bank as part of the 16th International Congress of Soil Science, Montpellier, France (August, 1998). Under an ideal situation, the papers would report on the final set of indicators to be used for monitoring land qual-ity, but unfortunately, this is not the case. The land quality indicator (LQI) program was started in 1995, and although much has been achieved under funding conditions less than ideal, much still remains to be done. Therefore, this compendium of papers represent state-of-the-art to this point in time.
In the years since the environmental summit, Rio de Janiero (1992), economic growth of US$ 2.4 trillion and population growth of about 400 mil-lion have placed continuing pressures on the earth’s land resources and ecosystems. It is estimated that currently about one-third to one-half of the earth’s non-glaciated land areas are regularly managed, and up to 70% receive some degree of human intervention. However, our record on managing these resources leaves much to be desired. Since 1992, tropical for-est cover, wetlands and other natural habitats have declined by 3.5%, carbon emissions have increased by 4% while natural carbon sinks in soils and forests have been degraded or lost. As much as 10 million hectares of land are being lost annually to severe degradation, we currently consume about half of the available fresh water, and more nitrogen is fixed by humanity than by all natural sources combined. Each year about one thousand new chemicals are released for use without any knowledge of the biological or synergistic effects, but only a few are regularly monitored.
This collection of papers is the first attempt to bring together a body of literature related to monitoring land quality. The first (Hurni) is the keynote address to the symposium. The second (Dumanski and Pieri) reports on a core set of indicators recommended as in-ternational standards by a select scientific panel, and a research plan for development. This is followed by four papers (Bindraban et al., Huffman et al., Kirkby et al., and Lefroy et al.) which describe progress towards developing such indicators. It should be noted that much of the research being reported was initiated for programs other than the LQI program and before the international standards were available. Therefore, the correspondence between the standards and the indicators is better in some cases than in others. This group of four papers is followed by a paper (Steiner et al.) on cost-effective field monitoring, and the final paper (Eswaran et al.), which describes a proposed geo-spatial land management unit for monitoring and application of LQIs.
Monitoring land management and the impacts of this on land quality is a complex undertaking. It requires a strong partnership between the scientific community and the development institutions respon-sible for promoting sustainable land use change. This series of papers is a step along the way, intended to provide focus and guidance for further evolution of the program. I hope they are useful.
Julian Dumanski
16 Burbank Street Ottawa, Ont., Canada K2G 0H4 E-mail address: [email protected]
(J. Dumanski).
