Europe's sustainable development councils have demanded more active impact assessment of unintended consequences of policy including urban sprawl and land abandonment.
The European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils network met in Bruges and agreed a statement on sustainable land use.
Delegates agreed sustainable land use would be more important that ever if the continent is to continue to enjoy sufficient food and drinking water without endangering biodiversity and urged the European Commission to integrate sustainable land use in its policies.
The importance of sustainable land use is moving up the policy agenda across Europe, despite four member states including the UK stalling the proposed soil framework directive.
The EEAC statement points out that sustainable land use requires governance frameworks and policies at all levels.
It says there is still room for major improvements in policy to contribute to a spatial structure which help promote delivery of public goods and services.
Sustainable land use is still insufficiently rewarded to make farmers, foresters and other land managers enhance biodiversity and seek climate change adaptation and mitigation and protect water services.
The statement says EU legislation should be more focused on promotion of sustainable land use as an overarching goal.
"The EEAC wishes to promote a more active impact assessment to fully consider the unintended spatial consequences of EU policy developments, with more harmonisation and coherence at the European level of the land use aspects of these policies, as part of achieving more sustainable land use, also at a global scale," it says.
"At the same time, member states should develop the necessary mechanisms to assess the implementation of these EU policies from a sustainability point of view, and to deal with unwelcomed consequences such as urban sprawl, poverty and loss of employment, or land abandonment."
The UK is represented by the Countryside Council for Wales and the Sustainable Development Commission in the network; both are set to disappear.
