Chapter Summary

Land has traditionally been a source of wealth and power. The ways we use this limited resource shape our lives and futures. About one-third of the earth’s surface is too inhospitable for agriculture, livestock, or forestry but is vital for such purposes as wilderness preservation and recreation. We grow crops on about 11 percent of the total land area. With proper preparation, we could expand cropland in some areas. Most of the earth’s land, however, is inappropriate for agriculture and is ruined by attempts to cultivate it.

Forests and woodlands cover about 32 percent of the earth’s land area, providing a variety of useful products such as lumber, pulpwood, and firewood. Northern forests are growing faster in most areas of the world than they are being cut and seem in little danger of being exhausted. Tropical forests, on the other hand, are in critical danger. Irreplaceable ecosystems that are home to as many as half of all biological species are being destroyed. Quick profits encourage this exploitation, but hidden costs such as lost wildlife habitat, erosion and devaluation of exposed land, and other disastrous environmental damage will follow from small short-term gains.

A little more than one-quarter of the earth’s land is used as range and pasture. Three billion grazing animals convert roughage to protein on poor land that could not otherwise be used to produce food for humans. When herds are managed properly, they actually can improve the quality of their pasture. Unfortunately, about one-third of the world’s rangelands are degraded by overgrazing, with disastrous environmental consequences similar to forest destruction.

Land reform is an essential part of sound land-use management. Fair distribution of land and its benefits encourages good stewardship, increased food production, sustainable agriculture, and social justice. Inequitable land ownership, so common today in much of the world, forces the poor to use land unsuited to agriculture, while good land is monopolized by the rich. Dividing land more fairly could increase agricultural productivity and sustainability of the land because farmers who own their own land generally use it more efficiently and more carefully than do absentee landlords. Recognizing indigenous land rights is important both for preserving endangered cultures and for protecting ecological values.