The director-general of the World Agroforestry Centre has warned that an overload of data and a lack of agreed standards are hampering efforts to accurately record and improve land management practices.

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Speaking at the Sustainability Science Congress, held last month in Copenhagen by the International Alliance of Research Universities, Tony Simons said, "When it comes to land management planning, we don’t have a system and, because of that, we don’t manage this resource well. We currently have a shopping list of… indicators. How are we meant to know which ones are important?"

The lack of agreed standards means definitions of what constitutes sustainable management are vague and in some cases may even misrepresent the situation on the ground, Simons warned. The World Agroforestry Centre Director suggested a range of priority indicators, which could include water use and availability, soil quality biodiversity, emissions and strength of farmers' organisations, but said it would be up to a body with sufficient clout and political will to establish these standards.

This story was originally reported on SciDiv.Net. The full story is available Here

More information on the topic is available from the World Agroforestry Centre Here