A Method of Watershed Land Classification and Assessment for the Tropics: A Case Study of Rio Guanare, Venezuela

Abstract

"The development of effective policies and plans for regional development in the tropics would be enhanced if planning were carried out on a basis of adequate appraisal of the land resource. 'Adequate appraisal' would involve a technically sound but simple and rapid assessment of the major environmental components (vegetation, soil, climate, fauna, water resources, topography, etc.), delination of relatively homogeneous environmental units which tend to respond more of less uniformly to a given treatment, and information about local prevailing or likely land use practices. Given enough money and technology, a land owner or manager can do virtually anything with any piece of the environment. What is sought, however, is to promote viable, sustainable uses without major ecological degradation or harmful off-site impacts to neighbors or public 'property,' such as streams, reservoirs or settlements. Such suitable, sustainable uses should be the goal of on-the-ground management and political policy decisions, avoiding the disastrous consequences of unsustainable land development which have often occurred in the tropics."