Sustainable Land Management is 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 [1] -[3] .

Sustainable Land Management is an approach which deals with the basic components of the global life support system. Since experience with the negative effects of natural resource exploitation has become pervasive, there has been growing awareness that productive lands are getting scarce, land resources are limited, and that the land under cultivation needs more and intensive care.

The indigenous technical knowledge on the conservation of natural capital reveals that, the un-sustained use of land resources coupled with land degradation is not always necessarily associated with low level of awareness on land management, it at times is also associated with social, political and economic factors that determine the informed choice of land users in a sustainable way.

The objective should be an agreed trade-off from farm level and community level to the international level.

・ Sustainable Land Management has a pivotal part in sustainable development

・ Sustainable Land Management targets the focuses on the roles of environment for the wellbeing of a community [4] [11] [12] .

・ Sustainable Land Management is also instrumental in combating land degradation in intensifying soil development. It will also help to enhance soil moisture, increases nutrient cycling by increasing production and productivity. Sustainable land management also helps to shelter biodiversity as a result of intercropping, agroforestry and other agronomic practices.

The issue of sustainability needs to be considered as a desirable way forward to be followed in rather than considering it as a goal in itself. Rather than using the term sustainability, one can talk about a higher or lower degree of sustainability [13] .

Sustainability does not have a conventional definition as it encompasses a range of which at times may appear conflicting and require compromise from local to international level policy and other related issues.

From individuals perspective different groups could define sustainability according to their own circumstances and situations. Pastoralists, farmers, scientists, policy makers, etc. may have their own definition to sustainability based on their own attitudes, nature of their objective, interest, etc.

From spatial point of view as for instance the use of water in tropical highlands may be considered as sustainable for the highlanders, this could however be considered as unsustainable in the neighboring lowlands as it may cause shortage of water to them.

It may not be possible to define sustainability from time dimension too on behalf of the future generation which has its own values and context. It is however, possible to sustain the land resources for the next generation. Sustainable land management needs a wide-range of understanding on a definite community within its own circumstances of the environment [4] .

About 2.6 billion people are estimated to depend directly on agriculture for their livelihood and 52% of the land used for agriculture is either moderately or severely affected by soil degradation [11] .

The degradation of land resources exacerbated by human activities has been a prime development challenge in the past 20^th century. It will also continue to be a prominent challenge to the in the 21^st century as a result of the adverse impact it is posing on the environment, climate, agriculture, survival of humanity, etc. [14] .

Land degradation affects agricultural production and productivity since it causes for the decline in the quality of the land as result of the washing away of minerals and nutrients from the different strata of the soil layer by wind and water. Due to the transfer of sediments from their source to the other, land degradation can also have its own effect on other irrigation and water development projects as a result of siltation. Land degradation can also cause a severe health threat to the public as it can destroy drainage and other sanitation facilities, which in turn affects the productivity potential of the human capital.

Box 1. Global facts on land resources.

Source: [11] .

Hurni (1993) cited in Mitiku et al. [7] pointed out that productivity of some lands had declined by 50% as a result of soil erosion and desertification; reduction in yield in Africa due to past soil erosion may range from 2 to 40%, with a mean loss of 8.2% for the continent. In South Asia, it is also mentioned that annual loss in productivity is estimated to be 36 million tons of cereal which is equivalent to US$5400 million by water erosion and US$1800 million as a result of wind erosion. It is estimated that the total annual cost of erosion from agriculture in the USA is about US$44 billion per year, i.e. about US$247 per ha of cropland and pasture. On a global scale the annual loss of 75 billion tons of soil costs the world about US$400 billion per year, or approximately US$70 per person per year.

Land degradation can be initiated by chemical, physical and biological processes [15] . Of which erosion, desertification, environmental pollution, loss of soil structure, etc. physical factors are the primary agents of land degradation.

Leaching, acidification, decline in fertility and cation retention capacity, and salinization are the predominant chemical factors that facilitate land degradation whereas, biodiversity degradation and reduction in total and biomass carbon are among the biological factors [16] .

The magnitude of land degradation is determined by the root causes of land degradation. These causes include socioeconomic aspects (institutional frameworks and arrangements, public health, land tenure, etc.), biophysical (agronomic practices, deforestation, land use and management, etc.) and political issues like governance, rule of law, political stability, ownership, etc. [16] .

Utilizing natural resources such as soils basically implies the risk of over using and degrading these resources as a result of improper as well unwise use of the natural resources by man such as deforestation, steep slopes cultivation, over grazing, and population pressure (Table 1).

Experience also reveals that, among the farming communities there is a diverse range of knowledge about the benefits and management of natural resources, which is also among the factors that aggravate land degradation as there are those which understand natural resources management in general and the role of soil and water conservation in particular in terms of increase in soil depth and the corresponding increase in yield. On the other hand, there can also be those who are not aware of the role of the sustained management of natural resources.

The sustained improvement of land management requires a better understanding of the interrelationships and coordination mechanisms in linking ecological, social, cultural, political and economical dimensions by all stakeholders from local to international levels. Participatory planning approaches at the community level are also the tools which will contribute for the sustainability of land development efforts. A cross sectoral coordination development framework will also play a role towards managing land in a sustainable way as different sectors like education, health, etc. are all dependent on the wellbeing of land resources.

For the success of sustainable land management, participatory and holistic monitoring and evaluation should be an integral part of the approach. It entails the participation of all partners which includes the beneficiary farmers,

Source: [17] .

agricultural and other development institutions, researchers, decision and policy makers, civil society organizations, NGOs, development partners (donors), etc. This will enable to have a shared goal, responsibility and accountability at all levels. The participatory approach will also create the enabling environment whereby various perceptions, experiences, ideas, needs, attitudes, options, etc. will rise and get fertilized at a wider level. It is also essential to come up with specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and trackable objectives and impact level indicators so as to understand whether the objective and expected outcomes of the interventions are achieved or not at the end of the day. Therefore, in order to achieve the sustained management of land, all actors of development should be committed for the proper flow of participatory design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation ventures of any development intervention programs.