Land Capability Classification (LCC)
Choosing the best way to use land, based on the sustained capacity of the land
Indicators of Sustainability
Monitoring to assess the impact of land use on the environment is a vital part of LCC. Sustainability can only be measured over time. What are the most useful indicators for impact assessment?
At the recent seminar in the Philippines, various sets of indicators were presented and discussed. Some models use a complex set of indicators, including yield trends, farmers' incomes, the gradient of slopes, soil properties etc. Although these give a detailed picture, applying them is difficult and takes a long time. The impact of land management on most indicators is not immediate, and is not easy to measure. Furthermore, the effects of agricultural activity are not only local. They are also felt a long distance downstream.
Several scientists suggested that, rather than trying to define indicators which give a very detailed picture of the economic and environmental situation, it might be better to use the minimum indicators that can give a useful result. Crop yield may be a useful minimum indicator, since it is easy to measure and shows the combined impact of many factors.
Data Collection
Information technology has provided LCC with new and sophisticated tools for manag ing and analyzing data, including data obtained from satellites. However, the results are only as reliable as the data they are based on.Data collection and a sound database are an essential part of LCC. Different organizations in a country should all collect and manage their data in the same way. This means that data from different sources can be combined in a single database, as a national resource.
LCC and Farmers
Most Asian farmers cultivate slopelands, not from choice, but because there is no more land for them down in the plains. Many are subsistence farmers, who have to grow their own food. Forestry or some kind of perennial crops might be best for soil conservation. However, subsistence farmers have no choice but to focus on staple foods.
Even where farmers are producing cash crops, they need a crop which has a high enough economic value to give them a reasonable annual income. In practice, this might mean that the options open to farmers are limited.
The benefits of sustainable practices tend to be long-term and off-site, while the costs tend to be local and immediate. As a result, there is often a poor match between land use and erosion potential. Sound data on soils, climate and land use, combined with long-term monitoring based on good indicators, are necessary to assess what is happening in slopeland areas, and measure the impact of conservation programs and land use planning.
LCC is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. "Conservation is not a conversation". The final aim is sustainable land management that conserves soil and water while giving a profitable return to the user.
Betelnut
The betelnut palm is about two-thirds the size of a coconut palm. It bears a greenish nut which is chewed as a mild stimulant. Betelnut is not a good crop for steep slopeland areas because it has a shallow root system and provides little ground cover. It is widely grown in Taiwan, where new betelnut plantations are a major cause of erosion in slopeland areas. Government efforts to persuade farmers to grow less damaging crops have been largely unsuccessful. From the farmers' point of view, betelnut is a very good choice of crop, since it provides a high return for a low labor input.
Farmers' choice of crops is based on what they see as their best interests. Unless incentives are provided, it is not reasonable to expect farmers to change their farming in a way that involves economic loss, for the sake of unknown communities downstream
Conclusion
In planning for sustainable land use, competing needs must be taken into account. Different users will have different aims. Some will be interested in promotng forestry and protecting watersheds, others in promoting tourism or preventing the sedimentation of irrigation canals and rivers downstream.
In most Asian countries the main users of slopeland areas are still small-scale farmers, many of them illegal and nearly all of them with lower incomes than those living in towns or lowland farms. The extent to which planning does or should meet their requirements, as opposed to national economic or environmental targets, is not an easy one. Community involvement at an early stage seems to be the key to obtaining community support for land use planning. Certainly LCC is not likely to work unless it gives local farmers some overall benefits.
Index of Images
Figure 1 Some Grasses Commonly Used in Asian Soil Conservation Programs 1. Centipede Grass
Figure 2 Some Grasses Commonly Used in Asian Soil Conservation Programs 2. Kikuyu Grass
Figure 3 Some Grasses Commonly Used in Asian Soil Conservation Programs 3.Carpet Grass
Figure 4 Some Grasses Commonly Used in Asian Soil Conservation Programs 4. Bermuda Grass
Figure 5 Betelnuts, Split and Filled with Lime Paste. They Are Chewed As a Mild Stimulant.
Figure 6 Inflorescence and Young Nuts of Betelnut
