Fjölrit RALA - 05.12.1999, Qupperneq 15

i h'ADIS W. BOX
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To think about the future of land degradation is to think about people, their lives,
their culture, their dreams. Stopping desertification is about creating a passion in peo-
ple to take care of the land.
At this conference we have agreed that much of the worlds rangelands are de-
graded; some are desertified. The causes are largely past human use: plowing, grazing,
fuel gathering. These causes are sometimes exacerbated by droughts or other natural
events. They are intensified by cultural biases such as gender inequities or a love af-
fair with the horse. But it is human use and population pressure that will drive land
degradation in the future.
We have demonstrated a lot of knowledge about what causes desertification and
how to fix degraded lands. Our science is improving. We know more about functional
ecology. Our efforts are becoming more integrated and we are sharing what we know.
Our biological and physical tools are good, but the job of motivating humans to care
for land is great.
Past degradation was done for survival, done in the name of progress, done with a
misunderstanding of the causes and the consequences. Sometimes it was done in igno-
rance and greed, but most often it was done to further societal goals.
Times are changing, our culture is changing, and the world’s rangelands will be
subjected to new uses. If we are to stop desertification and improve degraded range-
lands we need to think about changing cultural values, about how land will be used in
the future, and about the new worldwide concem for sustainability.
The fight against land degradation is about changing the human mind. It is about
valuing land for its beauty and its contribution to tranquility as well as for its firewood
and its forage. It is about motivating people to care about the land.
We need think about fixing old scars and preventing new ones on land we repre-
sent. Where does land care fit in with changing cultural demands on land.
Although we are ecologists who study and teach about change in biotic communi-
ties as they become degraded, we often ignore cultural change all around us.
My thesis is that the extent and intensity of rangeland desertification, and attempts
to correct past abuses, will be directly related to cultural values and new land uses.
These values and land uses will vary regionally and differ with population density and
the economy of the land users. In other words, there will be great differences between
the rich and poor countries. New approaches to sustainable communities must be de-
veloped in both.
I suggested a definition of range management at the Intemational Rangeland Con-
ference in Salt Lake City: Range management is the manipulation of rangeland
ecosystems to improve past damage, provide societal needs from those systems, and to
keep options open for future generations
This defmition implies that long-term sustainability of the system has priority over
short-term commodity extraction. Now, two years later, I believe that even that ex-
panded version of range management may be too narrow because it focuses on range-
land ecosystems rather than the sustainability of the human communities that depend
on those lands.