Terry Sunderland, International Association of Landscape Ecology Congress, Milan, Italy 4th July 2019

1. From rhetoric to reality:
Operationalizing the landscape
approach in practice
Terry Sunderland
International Association of Landscape Ecology Congress
Milan, Italy
4th July 2019

2. Landscapes have been central to CIFOR’s research strategy:
Central to CIFOR’s Strategy since 1993:
 Landscapes for Sustainable Livelihoods (LIV)
 Biodiversity in Fragmented Landscapes (ENV)
 Managing conservation and development trade-offs at the landscape scale
(Domain 4)
 Landscape Management, ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation and
livelihoods (Component 3)
 Sustainable landscapes and food systems
• Adaptive collaborative management
• “Landscape Mosaics” – SDC (with ICRAF)
• Landscape principles and guidelines
• Global Landscapes Forum
• Systematic reviews

3. The origin of the “landscape approach”
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010 - present
1980s: Integrated
Rural
Development
1998: Integrated Natural
Resource Management
(INRM)
1985 onwards: Integrated
Conservation & Development
projects (ICDPs)
Contributing Sciences:
Ecosystem Management
Landscape Ecology
Island biogeography
Conservation rooted
frameworks e.g. “Ecosystem
Approach”
1983: “Landscape Approach”
first documented (Noss,
BioScience)
Last decade:
(Integrated) Landscape
Approach frameworks

5. “A review of 15
Integrated Conservation
and Development
Projects in Asia who
said they were working
at the landscape scale
were in fact primarily
focused on protected
areas.”

6. Systematic reviews
• Identified major gaps in our
understanding of
implementation of landscape
approaches
• Yet pervasive narrative
continued to promote
“landscapes as a solution”…
but to what?
• Research not informing rhetoric
• SDG’s provide opportunity for
addressing development role of
forests in landscapes

8. Operationalizing landscape
approaches in the tropics (IKI)
• Concept first submitted
in May 2015
• Invited to re-submit in
2016
• Full proposal
development through
2017
• Continued refinement
to June 2018 when
project commenced

9. Project objectives
• To address gaps between strong scientific theory and
weak implementation
• To facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue to benefit actors
across multiple sectors and decision-making scales
• Raise awareness of the value of biological diversity in
complex landscapes to inform national policies
• To empower marginalized groups to effectively
participate in decision-making processes
• To test the extent to which implementation of landscape
approaches can reduce land use conflict

10. Linking research, policy and practice
Extensive policy and network analysis in each country
Political partners
• Ensures the project becomes part of the inter-ministerial
committee on climate change
• Promote the project at all levels of government
• Access data and information from other departments,
including forest and land use data
Implementing partners
• Promote the implementation of landscape approaches for
conservation, livelihoods and adaptation to climate change,
biodiversity conservation, democracy and governance
• Outreach through networks

11. Research partners
Centre for International Forest Research
• Overall project management and coordination
• Budgets and finance
University of Amsterdam
• Supervision of four PhD students, including two for
Zambia
• Lead on governance aspects of research
University of British Columbia
• Supervision of graduate students (PhD, Masters and
Post-Doc)
• Remote sensing support
• Scientific advisory role

12. Great opportunity…
• To challenge the project implementation paradigm;
moving from “project” to “process”
• Facilitating empowerment and knowledge sharing
• Building on existing networks and previous research
• To understand and monitor change in ever-changing,
dynamic landscapes
• Formal capacity building through student engagement
• To do cool stuff – photovoice, drone mapping,
landscape games – while keeping people engaged
• To provide much needed leadership in implementing
“landscape approaches”

13. Getting the message out

15. Thank you!
More information:
terry.sunderland@ubc.ca @TCHSunderland
j.reed@cigar.org @James_D_Reed