Numerous constraints make the attainment of sustainable development a foreboding challenge for the world's poorest countries. Among these obstacles are demographic pressure, natural-resource degradation, and the disadvantaged position of the rural poor, particularly women. While programs and projects continue to be designed to address each, it is argued that these constraints can be overcome only by viewing them in an integrated manner, that is, by understanding and addressing the interrelationships among them. This paper is organized around the theme of land management and argues that one of the effects of the vicious circle of population pressure, resource depletion, and rural poverty is to prevent people in the least developed countries from engaging in rational, forward-looking land-management practices. Specific problem areas in which the dynamic manifests itself acutely are reviewed, namely health and nutrition, legal and regulatory matters, access to information, and rural people's economic status. It is suggested that program planners and policy makers must adapt their modes of thinking and acting in order to focus on the notion of maximizing rural people's potential for taking rational decisions concerning land management.