In the long-term, other factors may come into play, such as land degradation, which may have the effect of shrinking useable land. At least coastal countries endowed with monetary resources can reclaim land from oceans and seas. A few world wise people would argue that land is a political resource because its use, whether optimal or sub-optimal, largely hinges on the implementation of government driven policies. Left to the whims of market forces and super aggressive financial systems, land use will naturally gravitate to the most profitable uses, and this can result in an unbalanced use of land, and failure to accommodate sustainability and environmental protection. Projected population growth demands that custodians of land should shimmy towards a multi-generational view of land and ensure that while they provide for current demands, plans are put in place for driving productive use of land to benefit future generations.
This calls upon all custodians of state and tribal land to jealously guard its usage without necessarily impeding economic development. One day, such forward-looking individuals would look in the rearview mirror and see a positive trail of their decisions in the development of the country. A balanced use of land would not ignore its long-term ecological health. It would consider equitable distribution of land across the entire spectrum of sectors essential for growth and sustainability and the importance of reserving adequate pieces for construction essential for human settlement, leisure as in parks and green areas, nature conservation, economic activity in the form of industries and commercial activities, infrastructure critical for sustaining developments, and arable land vital for food self-sufficiency and food security.
