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.Troll, C. 1939. Luftbildplan und ökologische Bodenforschung (Aerial photography and ecological studies of the earth). Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, Berlin: 241-298. 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.Northern Ireland Environment Agency 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.Baker, Alan R.H. (1988) Historical Geography and the Study of the European Rural Landscape. Geografiska Annaler 70B (1) 5-16.Helmfrid, Staffan (2004) The Permanent European Conference and the Study of the Rural Landscape. In Palang, Hannes (red.) (2004). European rural landscapes: persistence and change in a globalising environment. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 467 - 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,Explanatory Report , Art. 4. 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.UNESCO (2012) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention . UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Paris. Page 14.

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 globalLandscapes for People Food and nature case studies http://peoplefoodandnature.org/analysis/all-publications/case-studies/ 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.Deutscher Verband für Landschaftspflege (DVL) e. V. (2008): Natur als Motor ländlicher Entwicklung, DVL Schriftenreihe „Landschaft als Lebensraum", Heft 14

Relevance to international commitments Some argue landscape management can address the Sustainable Development Goals.Reed J, van Vianen J, Sunderland T. 2015. From global complexity to local reality: Aligning implementation pathways for the Sustainable Development Goals and landscape approaches. Infobrief No. 129. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research. Many of these goals have potential synergies or trade-offs: some therefore argue that addressing these goals individually may not be effective, and landscape approaches provide a potential framework to manage them. For example, increasing areas of irrigated agricultural land to end hunger could have adverse impacts on terrestrial ecosystems or sustainable water management. Landscape approaches intend to include different sectors, and thus achieve the multiple objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals – for example, working within catchment area of a river to enhance agricultural productivity, flood defence, biodiversity and carbon storage.

Climate change and agriculture are intertwinedBeddington J, Asaduzzaman M, Fernandez A, Clark M, Guillou M, Jahn M, Erda L, Mamo T, Van Bo N, Nobre CA, Scholes R, Sharma R, Wakhungu J. 2011. Achieving food security in the face of climate change: Summary for policy makers from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Copenhagen, Denmark https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/35589/climate_food_commission-final-mar2012.pdf?sequence=1 , so production of food and climate mitigation can be a part of landscape management. The agricultural sector accounts for around 24% of anthropogenic emissions. Unlike other sectors that emit greenhouse gases, agriculture and forestry have the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions, for example by reforestation and landscape restoration.Smith P., M. Bustamante, H. Ahammad, H. Clark, H. Dong, E. A. Elsiddig, H. Haberl, R. Harper, J. House, M. Jafari, O. Masera, C. Mbow, N. H. Ravindranath, C. W. Rice, C. Robledo Abad, A. Romanovskaya, F. Sperling, and F. Tubiello, 2014: Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). In: Climate Change 014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Advocates of landscape management argue that 'climate-smart agriculture' and REDD+ can draw on landscape management.

Regional Germany

Because a large proportion of the biodiversity of Germany was able to invade from the south and east after human activities altered the landscape, maintaining such artificial landscapes is an integral part of nature conservation. The full name of the main nature conservation law in Germany, the Bundesnaturschutzgesetzes, is thus titled in its entirety Gesetz über Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege, where Landschaftspflege translates literally to "landscape maintenance" (see reference for more). Related concepts are Landschaftsschutz, "landscape protection/conservation", and Landschaftsschutzgebiet, a "nature preserve", or literally a (legally) "protected landscape area". The Deutscher Verband für Landschaftspflege is the main organisation which protects landscapes in Germany. It is an umbrella organisation which coordinates the regional landscape protection organisations of the different German states. Classically, there are four methods which can be done in order to conserve landscapes:Jedicke et al. (1996): Praktische Landschaftspflege – Grundlagen und Maßnahmen. Eugen Ulmer, Hohenheim maintenance, improvement, protectionBaals, C.(2010): Qualitätsmanagement in der aktiven Landschaftspflege – unter Berücksichtigung ihrer Entwicklung im Freistaat Bayern. Herbert Utz Verlag – Wissenschaft, München and redevelopment. The marketing of products such as meat from alpine meadows or apple juice from traditional Streuobstwiese can also be an important factor in conservation. Landscapes are maintained by three methods: biological - such as grazing by livestock, manually (although this is rare due to the high cost of labour) and commonly mechanically.

The Netherlands

Staatsbosbeheer, the Dutch governmental forest service, considers landscape management an important part of managing their lands. Landschapsbeheer Nederland is an umbrella organisation which promotes and helps fund the interests of the different provincial landscape management organisations, which between them include 75,000 volunteers and 110,000 hectares of protected nature reserves. Sustainable landscape management is being researched in the Netherlands.

Peru

An example of a producer movement managing a multi-functional landscape is the Potato Park in Písac, Peru, where local communities protect the ecological and cultural diversity of the 12,000ha landscape.

Sweden

In Sweden, the Swedish National Heritage Board, or Riksantikvarieämbetet, is responsible for landscape conservation. Landscape conservation can be studied at the Department of Cultural Conservation (at Dacapo Mariestad) of the University of Gothenburg, in both Swedish and English.

Thailand