Reconciling Conservation and Development: Are Landscapes the Answer?

Abstract

The landscape approach is being used for initiatives that have the dual objectives of conserving biodiversity and alleviating poverty. However, working at such landscape scales greatly expands the level of ambition of conservation organizations and requires them to use skills that differ from those that they have traditionally deployed. Influencing landscape change requires major commitments for long periods of time and since there is still little evidence for the success of such approaches they should be used cautiously. Landscape programmes must be based on a comprehensive understanding of landscape dynamics and of the underlying drivers of social, economic and ecological change. Just as in any other investment in conservation it is important to set objectives in clear and measurable terms. Landscape approaches should therefore complement and not replace more conventional biodiversity conservation measures. They should be guided by scenarios agreed by concerned stakeholders, should be constructivist and in most cases their success will require major changes in the behavior of local people.

Ten principles for a landscape approach to reconciling agriculture, conservation, and other competing land uses

“…It ties stakeholders to long-term, iterative processes, giving them responsibilities and empowering them. It tends away from top-down engineered solutions toward more bottom-up negotiated actions that emerge from a process akin to muddling through (11).…”

“…"Landscape approaches" have gained prominence in the search for solutions to reconcile conservation and development tradeoffs (11), and the term has evolved to encompass a wide variety of interpretations. Early conservation theory promoted landscape-scale thinking, particularly through the principles of island biogeography (12); debates about the appropriate size, number, and distributions of reserves and connectivity between them (e.g., refs.…”

“…The implementation of people-centered landscape approaches to environmental management has been embraced widely, with many conservationists now focused on multifunctional landscapes, and not solely on protected areas (11,33). However, although many of the biophysical concepts and principles have been relatively well summarized and shared (e.g., refs.…”

How can landscape ecology contribute to sustainability science?

“…Several types of collaborative forms of landscape governance have been proposed. One specification of landscape governance, coined as the landscape approach, emerged outside landscape ecology in association with integrated land management (Sayer 2009, see for a recent review from a social perspective Arts et al 2017). Another one, landscape stewardship, is a type of collaborative landscape governance recently defined and explored in a book edited by Bieling and Plieninger (2017).…”

Ecologia de Paisagens e Licenciamento Ambiental

“…Sayer 2009;Pfund 2010;Wu 2006). Conciliar a conservação da biodiversidade, incluindo os processos ecológicos e evolutivos, ao desenvolvimento humano e novos empreendimentos, é um desafio a ser enfrentado.…”