At one extreme, the aim of the individual farmer and other types of land user is to produce income by exploiting natural resources. At the other extreme, the community as a whole seeks to conserve natural resources and the environment, including the range of natural species, for a wide variety of reasons. Each individual or group has particular needs, objectives and points of view, AGL says. The resulting use of land is controlled by an interplay of many social and economic factors, and is ultimately driven by the objectives of innumerable 'stakeholders' - people or groups who either directly exploit or in some way control the use of land resources. Mounting toll of land degradation In 1950, some 115 million sq km of the Earth's surface was undegraded, vegetated land.
Land degradation takes many forms.
Overgrazing by livestock has damaged an estimated 6.8 million sq km, with recent losses have been most severe in Africa and Asia. Deforestation degraded a further 5.8 million sq km. Between 1975 and 1990, more than 2.2 million sq km of tropical forest were destroyed. Agricultural mismanagement accounts for degradation of another 5.5 million sq km. Stakeholders in conflict .