Conserving rural areas

The vision that includes nature as an essential component of the countryside is one in which the greater proportion of the land surface will comprise a diversity of low-intensity farm systems together with large tracts of unenclosed land sustaining extensive pastoralism.

The overall goal of rural development programmes should be the reduction of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition and inequity, and an integral part of all these programmes is the introduction of a positive rural land-use strategy, which recognizes the prime importance of food production, but at the same time safeguards soil and representative areas of natural ecosystems. The goal of the World Conservation Strategy is the integration of conservation and development so that we may all have a way of life which is sustainable. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain legitimate human demands and traditional lifestyles. High rates of human population growth, coupled with a high rate of world economic growth are threatening the four basic biological systems that support the global economy: the grasslands, fisheries, croplands and forests.