Fjölrit RALA - 05.12.1999, Page 16

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Future deserts and sustainable communities
It does not state strongly
enough the role of esthetics,
beauty, and social justice in
sustainable communities. Our
field trip to Gullfoss showed
us that land’s value to the
human spirit may be as im-
portant as its role in produc-
ing food. When a young
woman is willing to cast her-
self into destruction to save a
waterfall, should not we be
willing to sacrifice for a stable
landscape with continuing
beauty? Should not our care
for the land be more important than the commodity that is produced or the industry
that it supports?
The quest for a sustainable biosphere is a worldwide movement. It was made
popular by world conferences on the environment and now supports a number of bu-
reaucracies.
The quest for sustainable communities is made up of local issues such as providing
jobs to keep the kids firom leaving home in rural Utah, supplying water for a village in
westem China, ensuring stable landscapes in Iceland, or maintaining air quality and
light that inspired Georgia O’Keefe to capture New Mexico on canvas for the world to
enjoy.
The quest for sustainability has many definitions, but all defmitions include four
concepts: There must be equity for today’s land stewards . . . a good living for farmers
and foresters. Equity for future generations must leave options open for our grandkids.
Long term sustainability must take precedence over short term profit. We must prac-
tice environmental enhancement, improve what has been given to us, leave the world
better than we found it and become active in improvement.
To manage for sustainability means using land for societal values and shaping the
future conditions of landscapes for a full diversity of life, ecological processes, human
values, and resource use. It means balancing science with social values, economic fea-
sibility, institutional traditions and political muscle. It means stopping land degrada-
tion, keeping the beauty of sunsets, and the solitude of the range.
This leads to a new land management that provides a recipe for preventing and re-
pairing desertification. It suggests a policy that meets the needs of people today with-
out destroying the resources that will be needed in the future.
Stopping desertification depends upon understanding the ecological carrying ca-
pacity, determining what people want and need from the land, and maintaining a po-
litical and economic system that matches what people want and need with the land’s
ability to produce it. We spend a lot of time looking at the human impact on the land,
but we also need to understand what it is about land that people enjoy.