Landscape-scale conservation

Landscape-scale conservation is a holistic approach to landscape management, aiming to reconcile the competing objectives of nature conservation and economic activities across a given landscape. Landscape-scale conservation may sometimes be attempted because of climate change. It can be seen as an alternative to site based conservation. Many global problems such as poverty, food security, climate change, water scarcity, deforestation and biodiversity loss are connected. For example, lifting people out of poverty can increase consumption and drive climate change. Expanding agriculture can exacerbate water scarcity and drive habitat loss. Proponents of landscape management argue that as these problems are interconnected, coordinated approaches are needed to address them, by focussing on how landscapes can generate multiple benefits. For example, a river basin can supply water for towns and agriculture, timber and food crops for people and industry, and habitat for biodiversity; and each one of these users can have impacts on the others. Landscapes in general have been recognised as important units for conservation by intergovernmental bodies, government initiatives, and research institutes. Problems with this approach include difficulties in monitoring, and the proliferation of definitions and terms relating to it.

Definitions

There are many overlapping terms and definitions, but many terms have similar meanings. A sustainable landscape, for example, meets "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Approaching conservation by means of landscapes can be seen as "a conceptual framework whereby stakeholders in a landscape aim to reconcile competing social, economic and environmental objectives". Instead of focussing on a single use of the land it aims to ensure that the interests of different stakeholders are met. The starting point for all landscape-scale conservation schemes must be an understanding of the character of the landscape. Landscape character goes beyond aesthetic. It involves understanding how the landscape functions to support communities, cultural heritage and development, the economy, as well as the wildlife and natural resources of the area. Landscape character requires careful assessment according to accepted methodologies. Landscape character assessment will contribute to the determination of what scale is appropriate in which landscape. "Landscape scale" does not merely mean acting at a bigger scale: it means conservation is carried out at the correct scale and that it takes into account the human elements of the landscape, both past and present.

History

The word 'landscape' in English is a loanword from Dutch landschap introduced in the 1660s and originally meant a painting. The meaning a "tract of land with its distinguishing characteristics" was derived from that in 1886. This was then used as a verb as of 1916. The German geographer Carl Troll coined the German term Landschaftsökologie–thus 'landscape ecology' in 1939. He developed this terminology and many early concepts of landscape ecology as part of this work, which consisted of applying aerial photograph interpretation to studies of interactions between environment, agriculture and vegetation. In the UK conservation of landscapes can be said to have begun in 1945 with the publication of the Report to the Government on National Parks in England and Wales. The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 introduced the legislation for the creation Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Northern Ireland has the same system after adoption of the Amenity Lands (NI) Act 1965. The first of these AONB were defined in 1956, with the last being created in 1995. The Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape was established in 1957. The European Landscape Convention was initiated by the Congress of Regional and Local Authorities of the Council of Europe (CLRAE) in 1994, was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2000, and came into force in 2004. The conservation community began to take notice of the science of landscape ecology in the 1980s. Efforts to develop concepts of landscape management that integrate international social and economic development with biodiversity conservation began in 1992. Landscape management now exists in multiple iterations and alongside other concepts such as watershed management, landscape ecology and cultural landscapes.

International The UN Environment Programme stated in 2015 that the landscape approach embodies ecosystem management. UNEP uses the approach with the Ecosystem Management of Productive Landscapes project. The scientific committee of the Convention on Biological Diversity also considers the perspective of a landscape the most important scale for improving sustainable use of biodiversity. There are global fora on landscapes. During the Livelihoods and Landscapes Strategies programme the International Union for Conservation of Nature applied this approach to locations worldwide, in 27 landscapes in 23 different countries. Examples of landscape approaches can be global or continental, for example in Africa, Oceania and Latin America. The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development plays an important part in funding landscape conservation in Europe.

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