In the tropics most of the steepland areas are settled by small-scale farming families where livelihoods may be endangered by land degradation and associated loss of productivity. This bulletin brings concepts and principles of good land husbandry into focus, as a basis for developing different ways of thinking about safe management of steeplands within the environmental, cultural and economic context of the farm families that inhabit them. The translation of the concepts and principles of good land husbandry into field practice will require practical actions that are well adjusted to the site and farmer-specific conditions where they would be applied.