What are ‘Integrated Landscape Approaches’ and how effectively have they been implemented in the tropics: a systematic map protocol

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing acceptance that sectorial approaches to land management are no longer sufficient to meet global challenges such as poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and food production. The pressing challenge of integrated landscape management is to link agricultural practices, institutions and policies with other landscape-scale activities. "Integrated Landscape Approaches" provide a basic framework for balancing competing demands and integrating policies for multiple land uses within a given area. However, attempts to formalize and characterize what landscape approaches actually represent have resulted in a plethora of interlinked terminology and re-invention of ideas and practices under multiple guises. This has led to delayed uptake amongst policy makers and resistance to implementation on the ground. This protocol will describe the methodology to be employed for a systematic map that will chart the development of the landscape approach theory, consolidate and synthesize existing definitions, and identify where and how these approaches have been implemented in the humid and dry tropics. Methods/Design: A scoping exercise gave rise to a selection of search terms appropriate to the research question which will then be applied to a suite of specialist, online and institutional databases. The protocol will follow a population-intervention-comparator-outcome (P.I.C.O) framework which provides the basic rationale for evidence-based systematic literature searches. The P.I.C.O serves as the inclusion criteria and together with a pre-determined exclusion criteria will be used to screen retrieved literature for relevance at title, abstract and full text levels. All studies investigating either landscape approach theory or implementation within the humid and dry tropics will be included. The resulting studies will be coded and used to satisfy two key outcomes. First, literature on the theory of landscape-scale approaches will be compared and contrasted to identify where overlap and disjuncture exists. Second, studies of landscape approach implementation will be assessed for effectiveness, geographically mapped, made available in searchable databases and supplemented with a full report.

A methodology for systematic mapping in environmental sciences

“…[26]). For this type of question it is difficult to define inclusion criteria for specific key elements (to decide what studies are relevant) and an iterative approach may have to be taken.…”

“…Systematic maps may be of potential interest to a wide range of stakeholders, including policy makers, practitioners, non-governmental organisations, levy boards, scientists and research funding bodies e.g. [26,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52].…”

“…For this type of question it is difficult to define inclusion criteria for specific key elements (to decide what studies are relevant) and an iterative approach may have to be taken. The evidence gathered may be used to inform the development of new theories, conceptualisations or understandings [11,16,26]. In environmental sciences, a method of collating studies to address these types of question is often needed.…”

“…[26] A systematic map approach may be chosen if the aim is to collate data for purposes other than answering a question through systematic review. For example, the question below was formulated to identify relevant information for modelling and to assess the potential for evolution of resistance of different cropBt-protein-species combinations:…”

Integración de la adaptación y la mitigación en las políticas sobre cambio climático y uso de la tierra en el Perú

“…Dado que el enfoque es intrínsecamente intersectorial, puede promover una integración de políticas que va más allá de la evaluación de los tradeoffs (Reed et al 2014). La experiencia de Dinamarca ha demostrado que el diseño de estrategias de paisaje es una vía promisoria para mejorar la integración de políticas en contextos rurales, aunque se requieren esfuerzos adicionales para comprometer a la agricultura intensiva de gran escala con las prioridades y las prácticas de las comunidades (Primdahl et al 2013).…”