Traditional Land-Use Systems: Sustainability, Efficiency and Biodiversity

Currently used methods of intensive land man- agement are unsustainable (Section 2), and our attempts to protect the environment fiom their damaging effects have at best been limited, and in some cases counter-productive (Section 3). Robust, biologically-rich landscapes seem to be the natural result of using locally adapted land-management systems. Although these are not as productive as intensive systems, they have a rich variety of produce, and are sustainable, efficient and capable of providing the basis for biological conservation at a number of ecologi- cal des. Unfortunately, they are now largely confined to the least versatile soils, and are dding.