Leveraging Landscape Stewardship: Principles and Ways Forward

TY - CHAP

T1 - Leveraging Landscape Stewardship

T2 - Principles and Ways Forward

AU - Bieling, Claudia

AU - Plieninger, Tobias

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - Landscape Stewardship and a Transition Towards Sustainabilit Humans have profoundly transformed planet Earth, for instance its biodiversity, geomorphology and climate. In the era of the Anthropocene (Crutzen 2002, Steffen et al. 2007), the natural foundations of human wellbeing are increasingly under pressure, as most prominently emphasised in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA 2005). Scientists and policy makers likewise place much attention on the question of how society can keep within planetary boundaries, which would secure a safe operating space for humanity (Rockström et al. 2009, Steffen et al. 2015). There is much agreement that this sustainability transformation is not just a technological or political question, but that it will require a fundamental shift in human-nature relationships, comparable to the two other great transformations humankind brought forward: The Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution (WBGU 2011). Including all societal actors, this involves a shift in all aspects of human life, ranging from deeply rooted cultural beliefs to very concrete practices of everyday life. This volume started with the observation that the landscape approach is one of the currently most vibrant perspectives on this sustainability-guided redefinition of human-nature relationships, both in science and practice. At the centre of this approach is the notion of landscape stewardship, which is understood as a place-based, landscape-scale expression of a broader strategy to deal with social-ecological systems under conditions of uncertainty and change, in order to sustain human wellbeing and its natural foundations (ecosystem stewardship, see Chapin et al. 2010). Five principles are commonly agreed upon to characterise a landscape stewardship approach (Laven et al. 2013, Sayre et al. 2013, Milder et al. 2014): (1) Integrated approach to landscape values: Landscape stewardship seeks to improve heritage, food production, biodiversity or ecosystem conservation and rural livelihoods simultaneously and particularly acknowledges the interconnections between social justice and environmental health. (2) Landscape scale: Landscape stewardship works at a landscape scale and includes deliberate planning, policy, management or support activities at this scale (while at the same time considering the complex and often non-linear interactions with processes and practices at other scales). (3) Intersectoral co-ordination: Landscape stewardship involves co-ordinated action across sectors (e.g. agriculture, tourism, heritage conservation) and correspondingly the alignment of activities, policies or investments at the level of ministries, local government entities, farmer and community organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donors and/or the private sector.

AB - Landscape Stewardship and a Transition Towards Sustainabilit Humans have profoundly transformed planet Earth, for instance its biodiversity, geomorphology and climate. In the era of the Anthropocene (Crutzen 2002, Steffen et al. 2007), the natural foundations of human wellbeing are increasingly under pressure, as most prominently emphasised in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA 2005). Scientists and policy makers likewise place much attention on the question of how society can keep within planetary boundaries, which would secure a safe operating space for humanity (Rockström et al. 2009, Steffen et al. 2015). There is much agreement that this sustainability transformation is not just a technological or political question, but that it will require a fundamental shift in human-nature relationships, comparable to the two other great transformations humankind brought forward: The Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution (WBGU 2011). Including all societal actors, this involves a shift in all aspects of human life, ranging from deeply rooted cultural beliefs to very concrete practices of everyday life. This volume started with the observation that the landscape approach is one of the currently most vibrant perspectives on this sustainability-guided redefinition of human-nature relationships, both in science and practice. At the centre of this approach is the notion of landscape stewardship, which is understood as a place-based, landscape-scale expression of a broader strategy to deal with social-ecological systems under conditions of uncertainty and change, in order to sustain human wellbeing and its natural foundations (ecosystem stewardship, see Chapin et al. 2010). Five principles are commonly agreed upon to characterise a landscape stewardship approach (Laven et al. 2013, Sayre et al. 2013, Milder et al. 2014): (1) Integrated approach to landscape values: Landscape stewardship seeks to improve heritage, food production, biodiversity or ecosystem conservation and rural livelihoods simultaneously and particularly acknowledges the interconnections between social justice and environmental health. (2) Landscape scale: Landscape stewardship works at a landscape scale and includes deliberate planning, policy, management or support activities at this scale (while at the same time considering the complex and often non-linear interactions with processes and practices at other scales). (3) Intersectoral co-ordination: Landscape stewardship involves co-ordinated action across sectors (e.g. agriculture, tourism, heritage conservation) and correspondingly the alignment of activities, policies or investments at the level of ministries, local government entities, farmer and community organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donors and/or the private sector.

U2 - 10.1017/9781316499016.037

DO - 10.1017/9781316499016.037

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781107142268

SP - 370

EP - 382

BT - The Science and Practice of Landscape Stewardship

A2 - Bieling, Claudia

A2 - Plieninger, Tobias

PB - Cambridge University Press

CY - Cambridge

ER -