Operationalizing the integrated landscape approach in practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The terms "landscape" and "landscape approach" have been increasingly applied within the international environmental realm, with many international organizations and nongovernmental organizations using landscapes as an area of focus for addressing multiple objectives, usually related to both environmental and social goals. However, despite a wealth of literature on landscapes and landscape approaches, ideas relating to landscape approaches are diverse and often vague, resulting in ambiguous use of the terms. Our aim, therefore, was to examine some of the main characteristics of different landscape approaches, focusing on how these might be applied in the process of taking a landscape approach. Drawing on a review of the literature, we identify and discuss three different kinds of landscape approaches: using the landscape scale, a sectoral landscape approach, and an integrated landscape approach. Focusing on an integrated landscape approach, we examine five concepts to help characterize landscape approaches: multifunctionality, transdisciplinarity, participation, complexity, and sustainability. For each term, a continuum of application exists. To help improve and move the integrated landscape approach more toward operationalization, more focus needs to be placed on the process of taking the approach. Although the process can be implemented in a range of ways, in a more integrated approach it will require explicitly defined objectives as well as a clear understanding of what is meant by multifunctionality and sustainability. It will also require collaborative participation, transdisciplinarity/cross-sectoral approaches, managing for adaptive capacity, and applying an iterative process to address the inherent complexity within the system. Although these concepts are not new, we present continuums on which they can exist, allowing for clarification and distinctions to be made regarding what it means to take a landscape approach.

Implementing REDD+ in view of integrated conservation and development projects: Leveraging empirical lessons

“…Approaches that consider various tenure regimes and social interests in emissions reductions have been conceptualised as landscape approaches . Proponents of landscape approaches argue that they can help REDD+ attend to the interconnections between forests and other land uses, as well as the socioeconomic attributes governing these land uses Freeman et al, 2015). In this study, this approach improved on ICDP experiences where focus had been directed towards isolated land uses, e.g.…”

Integrated Landscape Approach: Closing the Gap between Theory and Application

“…By ensuring the equitable and sustainable use of land, a landscape approach is a potential mechanism to alleviate poverty in an equitable manner, conserve biodiversity, safeguard forests, sustainably manage natural resources, while maintaining food production and mitigating climate change" [4]. Freeman et al [3] conclude participation, interdisciplinarity, multifunctionality and sustainability to be the main concepts shared by different studies trying to specify what an integrative landscape approach stands for. They, moreover, distinguish between different framings of the approach, ranging from interpreting the landscape approach as: (a) a conceptual framework; (b) a set of principles; or (c) a process.…”

“…Addressing the multitude of global challenges expressed in the SDGs requires novel integrative approaches, such as integrative socio-ecological system analyses and more recently the landscape approach [2][3][4]. The growing importance of the landscape approach in the sustainable development agenda is due to its potential to overcome the problems of sectorial approaches [5], to address tradeoffs within larger spatial entities [4], enabling a better understanding of the processes of change and the resilience of local communities and their environment [6] and to tackle the aspects of place attachment in every-day landscapes [7].…”

Analyzing dynamics and values of cultural landscapes

“…A landscape perspective is genuinely integrative, focusing on the analysis of trade-offs between ecosystem services and sustainable development goals (SDGs) in (everyday) cultural landscapes. Establishing links between ecosystem services and the SDGs is in this sense an important step for opening up novel avenues for landscape research to become relevant for the global challenges ahead (Freeman et al 2015). Analyzing changes and values of cultural landscapes and projecting them into the future provides guidelines and contributes to monitoring systems for SDGs.…”