1. Land use planning aims at sustainability balancing social, economic
and environmental needs;
2. Land use planning results in a legally binding land use plan and/or
legally binding land use rules. Formal recognition of the land use plan
or land use rules is crucial for its implementation. Otherwise, key players
such as sector ministries or private investors do not respect them;
3. Land use planning is integrated into state institutions having the
official mandate for inter-sector planning. This can be realized in
different ways. The planning can be initiated and facilitated by a local
administrative body. The planning can also be done by local or traditional
chiefs and later formalized through the signing by a regional
or national officer. In the later case, these higher level officers need,
however, be involved from an early stage on;
4. Land use planning is a dialogue. A central part of any land use planning
is the initialization of a communication process that allows all
stakeholders to express their interests and enables them to agree on
future land uses that respect all positions in a fair and adequate way;
5. Land use planning is an all inclusive process. This requires that all
stakeholder groups are represented: local direct and indirect users,
public authorities, private investors, NGOs and CBOs. Depending on
the level on which land use planning is done, stakeholders’ participation
can be direct or indirect;