**5. Strategies to maintain the conservation-utilization balance for sustainability in arid regions**

In light of the performed SWOT analysis for "Land resources and Sustainability in Turkey," six threats and six weaknesses were identified, and to overcome their effects, six significant strategies were recommended as outlined below.

## **5.1. Strategy WT<sup>1</sup>**

Unfortunately, it has been assessed that the soil and water resources in our country cannot be protected by effective and comprehensive legislation. And so, reforms are needed in the existing legislation, taking into account the conservation-use balance in relation to the protection of natural resources [W2-5 − T2-4-6].

### **5.2. Strategy WT<sup>2</sup>**

National scale studies such as monitoring and assessments of soil degradation types, e.g., desertification, erosion and effects of climate change and global warming on sustainable land management have been largely based on unreliable datasets, and so, they need to be updated for effective planning and monitoring of land resources. In order to do that, comprehensive soil survey and mapping studies should be carried out. In addition, species especially in arid regions should be identified for preventing biodiversity losses, and necessary measures should be taken for sustainability [W1-3 – T1-6].

measures (such as fertilization, seeding and soil and water conservation measures) must be taken with pasture management to protect natural grassland areas where rainfall is insufficient or unevenly distributed. In areas having higher potential for rehabilitation, measures to prevent land degradation should be planned and enforced. Biological fighting methods

Strategies to Enhance Sustainability of Land Resources in Arid Regions

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The topographic and climatic conditions of Turkey limit the width of the suitable land in rural areas. Besides, the land is very fragmented in the way of inheritance, which leads farmers to use marginal lands for agricultural facilities, and it causes the land degradation process in terms of deforestation, land conversions, etc. These activities shortly give irreversible damage to areas where high slopes, shallow soil profiles and inadequate vegetation coverage are the key properties for degradation. For this reason, it is extremely important to supply an acceptable level of farm income to the farmers. In this context, rural development must be realized in agriculture. For that, agricultural income should be increased steadily, the standard of living should be increased and resources should be used more effectively and economically. Thus, the way to be followed is the regional planning of production patterns with high profit margins based on the conservation-use balance of natural resources in order to reduce the

– T3-6].

In Turkey, the effects of land degradation are considered to be mostly experienced in the inner and central Anatolia regions where the arid and semiarid areas dominate. Intensive deforestation, industrialization and rapid population growth in coastal regions have been defined as the significant threats for accelerating the impacts of climate change throughout the country and limiting the sustainability of natural resources with the aid of topographical and climatic insufficiencies. In this context, first, current situation of land degradation processes and its causes and results in Turkey were discussed and then the measures and strategies enforced in the national scale were summarized. Under the light of current situation, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis was performed to recommend the strategies for overcoming the weakness and possible treats on sustainable land resource management. These strategies were mainly explained under the headings of deficiencies in legal regulations in Turkey: the necessity of making comprehensive land-use plans not only at the agricultural purposes but also at the regional and national scale, renewal of insufficient and unreliable databases of natural resources in terms of monitoring land degradation and climate change processes, supplying of the coordination and integration among governmental, academic, private, nongovernmental organizations and land users and dissemination of environmentally sound management practices. Finally, it is concluded that sustainable resource management must be ecologically, economically, politically and socially integrated in fragile ecosystems

should be preferred in combating harm [W4-5-6 − T2-3].

pressure on land resources considerably [W<sup>6</sup>

**5.6. Strategy WT<sup>6</sup>**

**6. Conclusion**

such as Turkey.
