The maintenance of valued landscapes often requires the active collaboration of local communities in their planning, management and sustainable development. This paper examines a variety of situations in which local stakeholders have actively participated in the protection and maintenance of 'cultural' landscapes. It reviews and interprets evidence on the ways in which central and local governments, non-governmental organizations, interest groups and the wider public can collaborate in planning and managing cultural landscapes. Particular attention is given to: the role of stakeholders, participation by communities-of-interest and communities-of-place; the management of specific landscape features; and policy and funding frameworks. It is concluded that community-based initiatives are unlikely to substitute for formal management of extensive protected areas, but that participatory approaches can be effective in more targeted situations.

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The landscape has long been an important object of rural policy, particularly in terms of protecting scenic areas. Increasingly, however, landscape is seen as a multifunctional and holistic entity, which provides a framework for the governance and interdisciplinary study of spatial units. A central dilemma in the maintenance of cultural landscapes is that the historical practices which produced them are often obsolete, and new social and economic forces may fail to reproduce their valued properties. Sustainable development strategies therefore seek to instil 'virtuous' circles in cultural landscapes, linking society and economy to environmental service functions and land uses, in order to generate mutually reinforcing feedback loops resulting in socially preferred outcomes. We explore ways of investigating these linkages as a basis for future rural research and policy. We conceptualise cultural landscapes as 'socio-ecological systems' (SESs), and consider their capacity for resilience and stability. Noting that resilient systems are characterised, not by simple equilibria, but by 'basins of attraction', we argue the need to understand the ways in which SESs stabilise within a particular basin, or move to an alternative. In particular, we reflect on the dynamics of 'adaptive cycles' that may lead to changes in system state. Finally, we discuss the development of appropriate models as tools for investigating whether a landscape is trending towards stability within a 'vicious' or a 'virtuous' circle, and evaluating potential interventions to alter this trajectory. Copyright 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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Local Agenda 21 has become well embedded as a mechanism for promoting sustainable development strategies at the municipal level. Quantitative studies indicate an impressive rate of progress on strategy production and adoption. This paper reports on qualitative research focused mainly on four innovative UK case studies, and explores the reality of experiences as revealed by participantsin Local Agenda 21. It considers the nature of claims made in relation to sustainability networks, the role of local government and stakeholder characteristics. The paper concludes that, whilst many of the claims about LA 21 are intractable to test, there is some evidence of genuine attainment. This relates mainly to processes of strategy production, stimulation of environmental citizenship, inclusion of various sectors, challenging traditional assumptions and actions, and assisting local democracy.

Landscape changes often provoke controversy, and yet may produce outcomes which become accepted and valued after a period of time. This essay proposes that society's increasingly earnest pursuit of sustainable development will involve landscape changes that attract protest and opposition, and which may prove a barrier to the rapid adjustments necessary to substantially reduce our carbon footprint. It considers this possibility by exploring two aspects. First, it considers the role of 'drivers' of change, and suggests that significant loss of traditional landscapes is inevitable, as the drivers that produced them are often becoming obsolete. Energy is likely to be a major driver of new landscapes as society seeks ways of weaning itself off fossil carbon fuels. The effects of this shift will be far-reaching, not only arising from energy production technologies, but also from the ripple effects of the energy 'life cycle'. Second, reference is made to the notion of the 'acquired aesthetic', which might suggest the capacity to develop a taste for emerging landscapes if we endorse their underlying story. The essay therefore raises the possibility that, by emphasising the underlying narrative of ingenuity in rising to the challenge of sustainable development, we can learn to see beauty and attractiveness in emerging landscapes of carbon neutrality.

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