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GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Latin America and the Caribbean


a reduction in the number of farms and ranches in both the Argentine and Uruguayan Río de la Plata. In Argentina, the number of farms and ranches decreased by 36 per cent between 1988 and 2002 (Hocsman 2015), and the reduction of small farms was particularly sharp (Piñeiro 2015). This process has been accompanied by rising land prices and, in some areas, a reduction in access to land for small farmers and ranchers.


2.4.5 Responses


Sustainable Land Management is defined as “the use of land resources such as soils, water, animals and plants for the production of goods – to meet changing human needs – while assuring the long-term productive potential of these resources, and the maintenance of their environmental functions” (UN 1992).


Sustainable land management strategies need to consider land´s different roles:


• Productive functions: to produce food, fodder, fuel, and other service functions.


• •


Physiological functions: to ensure human health by minimizing toxic substances in water, soils and plants, or hazards such as landslides and other disasters.


•


Cultural functions: to preserve the integrity of the landscape – the role(s) of water, land, forests and animals as an essential part of the cultural heritage. Strategies should also maintain the historical and aesthetic value of the landscape. Ecological


functions: to ensure maintenance of ecosystem function and global life-support functions.


Sustainable strategies require that different stakeholders take into account the links between different sectors and locations. As presented earlier, teleconnections in the agricultural


the status and trends of benefits and impacts. Sustainable land management strategies also need to be adaptive, so that they can incorporate uncertainty, unforeseen impacts and changing contexts.


This means that the region needs to move from a piece-meal approach in which different sectors (land, water, health) define policies and strategies that do not take into account the integrity of sustainability. IWRM presented in the water chapter and sustainable land management are part of the same holistic approach to managing ecosystems and the services they provide.


The challenges and opportunities of formulating sustainable land management strategies in Brazil and in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (More…24), clearly illustrate how an effective mix of policy instruments can be successfully deployed to achieve multiple environmental objectives.


sector have strong impacts on land-cover


change. An adaptive management perspective can assist land managers and decision makers (Stankey et al. 2005). Adaptive management requires continuous evaluation of


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Government involvement is essential for promoting sustainable land management strategies in different ecosystems. For example grasslands in Uruguay are increasingly under sustainable production systems that promote soil conservation, which is reducing land degradation (Hill and Clérici 2013). In 2009, Act 18 564 was passed which states, among other things, that landowners are obliged to adopt management techniques proposed by the Ministry for Livestock, Agriculture and Fishing (www.renare.gub.uy). In June 2012 the Ministry established the Native Grassland Board (Mesa de campo natural, Dec. 001/1349/12) with the participation of different institutions from government and academia. The objective of the Board is to advise the government and promote sustainable uses of native grasslands. Some non-governmental initiatives (Alianza del Pastizal) developed conservation indicators for Río de la Plata and promoted incentives in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil for preserving the integrity of native grasslands (Parera 2014). In other areas of the region improved agricultural practices have become more common. No-tillage agriculture has grown very fast in South America. As of 2009, 46.8 per cent of the 1.11 million square kilometres worldwide under no-


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