Sustainable land management is a knowledge-based procedure that helps guide decisions on land management toward those options that are most feasible and cost effective in achieving land-use intensification, particularly agricultural production, and improved environmental management. As discussed in the new World Bank Rural Sector strategy (World Bank, 1997), the need for agricultural intensification—as well as other demands for increased goods and services from the land—is already evident. No less urgent is the requirement for better and more environmentally positive management of rural landscapes.

In the past growth has often been achieved by degrading the natural resource base, but this is no longer acceptable. Increasingly it is being realized that land is a major factor in global life-support systems and that it has intrinsic value beyond agricultural production. Land provides global environmental benefits, such as its role in global geochemical (nutrient) cycles, source and sink functions for greenhouse gases, and filtering of water and pollutants. The challenge, then, is to achieve the dual objectives of intensification and preserving and enhancing the quality of land resources. There is increasing evidence that this is not a utopian dream, but indicators of land quality and sustainable land management are needed to guide us along the way.

Indicators are descriptors that represent a condition and convey information on changes or trends in that condition. They may be used in monitoring and evaluation programs to estimate the rate of change and the impacts. Indicators are already in regular use for economic and social data. For example, gross national product is an indicator of total wealth; life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy rates are indicators of social well- being. In contrast, few such indicators are available to assess, monitor, and evaluate changes in the quality of land resources or the impact of human interventions in the landscape. This annotated bibliography is one of a series of activities being undertaken by the World Bank, in cooperation with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada and other national and international partners, to correct this void.

Governments and other decisionmakers use indicators to make more informed decisions. At the same time an increasingly better informed public—including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other interest groups—use indicators to monitor decisions being made about land use; that is, indicators provide guidance on actions to be taken, but they are also an important component of national and global checks and balances to ensure that decisionmaking is in accordance with the requirements of society. For these reasons ad hoc selection of indicators is no longer acceptable, and indicator programs must be carefully structured, practical, and scientifically sound. However, decisionmakers at different levels (farm, regional, national, international) require different kinds of indicators depending on the kinds and level of their decisions. The probability of greater relevance, utility, and application of indicators increases if decisionmakers and other stakeholders are involved in the choice of indicators and the development of monitoring systems.

However, useful indicators do not just happen. They require directed and coordinated research programs and strong motivation by decisionmakers to create, maintain, and apply the indicators. Motivation may come from the need for (a) understanding complex systems, (b) a guide to more effective planning and development programs, (c) assessing the long-term social and environmental impacts of projects, (d) justifying funding, or other needs.