Reduction of tropical forests is being forced as a result of improper commercial logging, clearance, overuse, fuel wood consumption and measures for infrastructure. In some countries the government created this problem by passing rigid laws against forest use for local inhabitants. The economically difficult situation forces local people that were banned from using the forest to gather wood or wild fruits to exploit their previous village tree stands in an unregulated, quasi-anarchistic manner. The results are thus much more dramatic as forests offer many possibilities for use (apart from fuel wood, building materials, food, fodder, medicinal herbs and "hundreds of everyday things").

Uncertain, questionable land rights prevent long-term resource protection measures from being effective. Farmers will only plant grasses and legumes to improve their pastures, plant trees and take measures to prevent erosion if they are sure that they will receive the benefits of their investments. Exclusive property rights like private property, but also the long-term user rights which can be inherited are those which are most probable to promote a long-term planning perspective and the implementation of land use patterns which are resource-protective.

While fertile, highly productive land is concentrated in the hands of a few in many regions and remains partially uncultivated, poor farmers have often been displaced to marginal, ecologically fragile sites. Smallholders in the Dominican Republic, for example, often cultivate intensively land having poorer quality such as in mountainous or dry regions.

The conditions for land cultivation should not be separated from the systems of land tenure in their impact on soil preservation and conservation (cf. Overview 1, Section 1.1). The soil can be damaged due to excessive application of fertilizers and incorrect application of pesticides. A "code of land use" does not exist in many countries yet. The code regulates and restricts not only the land use rights and the application of fertilizers and pesticides, but also the intensity of use, use of hillsides, etc. (see Rural Code in the Niger).

Photo 4: South African Township

Clarification of water rights is often a serious problem in areas where irrigation is necessary. If water ownership and use rights and the mode of water distribution and management are not clearly determined, then problems of uncertainty of the law arise. In addition, the distribution of responsibilities between the state and users with respect to management and maintenance is often not regulated. This frequently leads to the wasting of water and, indirectly, to damaging the soil and a reduction in its yield potential.

When off-farm employment is found, the interest in farming and the preservation of resources decreases. In addition, many of the protective measures are very labor-intensive and are thus neglected such as the maintenance of terraces on hillsides and measures for the prevention of wind erosion. In general, these tasks are performed during times that are less labor-intensive in the farming production cycle. When the amount of land available to a family for farming is no longer sufficient, then the peasant is forced to find off-farm sources of income during these less labor-intensive times. As a result, the necessary skills, for example, for repairing terraces are lost in the long term.

Increasingly, nature reserves and national parks have been allocated. This is also due to the UNCED and to national environmental action plans. In the core of protected areas, no types of use are allowed, while sustainable use is required in buffer zones. Thus, the local population that used the area traditionally for gathering, hunting or stock keeping is banned from the core areas by strict laws de jure, however, they still use (illegally) the land de facto. The displaced forest inhabitants then compete with others (in part, external users) for the resources the supply of which is becoming more and more limited. Approaches for a participatory buffer zone management attempt to avoid conflicts between the forest authorities, legal and illegal users.

In general, the Indian inhabitants of the Amazon lowland areas use their territories very extensively, i.e. as a combination of farming, hunting, fishing and gathering. This way of managing the land in no way reflects the predominant conception of economically sound land use of the majority of the population since it is focused on subsistence and not for the market. Therefore, the Amazon region is considered "tierra baldía" or land without an owner to them. Anyone can own the land if he cultivates it. This point of view is also the basis for the governmental settlement programs which can be seen all over the Amazon region and for the spontaneous taking of land by landless immigrants and land speculators. Paradoxically, this serves as a valve for land reforms that have not been implemented or cannot be enforced in adjacent regions.

So as not to be totally driven from their territories, the resident ethnic groups feel compelled to cultivate their land "effectively" according to the standards of the majority of the society. They hope to acquire legal land titles in this way. An intensification of land use is in fact hardly possible or sufficient as a shortage of both labor and markets to sell the produce exist. Thus, many groups switch to using the land for extensive livestock keeping despite the ecological problems tied to this form of land use. This is sufficient evidence for the government that the land is being used though it destroys the tropical rain forest sustainably and over a broad area.