Fjölrit RALA - 05.12.1999, Qupperneq 14

Future deserts and sustainable communities
* 9
I am a card-canying member of the Society for Range Management, who believes
that ranges are for butterflies, picnics, pottery shards, broad vistas, ptarmigan hunting,
trout fishing, Icelandic horses, Hereford cows, Angora goats, and people. I believe
maintaining beauty is as much a goal for range managers as is providing forage.
You can see I have my own intemal conflicts about land use, so why is it surprising
that there are in the broader society land use conflicts that lead to land degradation?
To resolve my conflicts, I fall back on a philosophy and a goal: My philosophy is
stated simply in this poem I wrote years ago:
Deed of Trust
Land
own it
use it
control it
a warranty deed
legal
guaranteed
title of
possession
gives opportunitv
to use
or abuse
until we retum
to the soil
we think we own
but instead
possesses us
Simply put, land does not belong to us, we belong to the land. My goal is to attain
sustainable communities based on sound resource management.
Let me share some quotations I have heard here to set the stage of our thinking
about the future:
“Iceland’s meadows are part of the national self image; man has altered the face
of Iceland.” President Vigdís of Iceland.
“This is a convention about people living on the land, some of them in unbeliev-
able poverty.” Bo Kjellen, Sweden.
“Population growth, poverty, and land degradation breed each other.” Hamid
Narjisse, Morocco.
“It is a real challenge to motivate people at all levels to do something about land
degradation.” Franklin Cardy, UNEP.
“Human access to rangelands will be the motivator in getting something done
about desertification.” Kris Havstad, USA.