Over the coming decades, society will have to balance competing needs for land to feed a growing population, to provide resources and energy to satisfy the changing patterns of human consumption, to slow global warming and to reduce the rate of loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Estimates suggest that some 446 million hectares of ‘underutilised’ land remain available for conversion (Deininger & Byerlee, 2010), mainly in Indonesia, Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, DRC, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia). The extent and impacts of future land conversion to agriculture or other uses will depend on policy and other choices that society makes. For decision makers to balance different demands on land, it is crucial that they have access to spatial information on the suitability and the potential economic returns of land for alternative uses, the sustainability of these uses and their impacts on other resources. Land availability also plays an important role in that it may constrain the allocation of land for certain uses.