It is generally recognised that protected areas alone are inadequate for preventing biodiversity loss in much of the world and that ‘sustainable management’ of the entire landscape, including agriculturally productive areas is needed. The indicator ‘area of agricultural ecosystems under sustainable management’ reflects the well established cause-effect relationship between the presence of resources-conserving “sustainable” management practices and improvements in biodiversity status. The indicator therefore provides insights on relative pressures on biodiversity at landscape scale within countries.

The global assessment will be a compilation of sub-national level data from each country. This approach facilitates inter-linkages of assessments over a range of scales, from sub national to global.

Extent of management practices support sustainability
Area of agro-ecosystem under management practices supporting sustainability i.e. practices which are associated with positive trends in the LADA impact indicator ‘food security, health and poverty’ (Note: percentages refer to the extent of all management practices within a given land use system in an administrative unit).
Source: FAO-LADA, CSE (2009).

The “area of agro-ecosystems under management practices supporting sustainability” informs on the extent of resource-conserving interventions with reported positive impacts on social, economic and environmental conditions and, thus, expected to be “sustainable” over time. The indicator provides insights on relative pressures on biodiversity at landscape scales within countries. In order to determine trends in time, it will be necessary to carry out first a baseline survey followed by repeat surveys at appropriate intervals in time. The possibility that stakeholders’ perceptions of the impacts of a given intervention may change over time, which has a direct influence on the value of the indicator, should be taken into account in drawing conclusions.

For Senegal, one of the pilot countries of the LADA project, a total of 287 management interventions covering 9.1 million hectares were inventoried in the country-wide LADA baseline survey carried out in 2008. Only 12 percent of these cases, covering 1.7 million hectares, were judged by stakeholders to have had concurrent positive social, economic and environmental impacts over the preceding 10 years, and would therefore be considered ‘sustainable’. Of the major land use systems in the country, rainfed cropping recorded the highest percentage of management interventions which support sustainability (39 percent). In contrast, low values were associated with agropastoral areas. Future repeat surveys will allow trends from the 2008 indicator baseline to be determined, and conclusions drawn regarding threats on biodiversity due to management practices and their associated driving forces.’

At present this indicator is derived from national surveys for which data are currently available for the six pilot countries of the LADA project; Argentina, China, Cuba, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia. Manuals on how to carry out LADA national assessments, including mapping, as well as information on the pilot countries are available at the LADA site (www.fao.org/nr/lada). E-mail contact information for key project personnel is also available via the web site.

Improved guidance will be provided in current LADA data collection manuals in order to ensure (i) adequate coverage of the full range of management interventions within agricultural ecosystems in any given country, and (ii) improved reliability and consistency of expert opinion of social, economic and environmental impacts of such interventions.