The document discusses the conceptual framing of the landscape approach. It defines landscape as a socio-ecological system including natural and human-modified ecosystems. The landscape approach aims to reconcile competing social, economic and environmental objectives through actions at national and local levels. It encourages stakeholder collaboration and adaptive management to achieve conservation, production and livelihood goals within a landscape. Challenges include integrating public and private needs, and reconciling economic development with environmental sustainability across institutional boundaries.

1. Conceptual
Framing of the
Landscape
Approach
Amity Doolittle
Senior Research Scientist and Lecturer
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies
New Haven, Connecticut USA
25 April 2016

2. Outline
1. Define landscape
2. Define landscape approach
3. Define scale of landscape approach
1. Starting Point for Shared Understanding
2. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
1. Social Learning and Adaptive
Management
2. Challenges
http://mongabay-
images.s3.amazonaws.com

3. Landscape
▪ A socio-ecological system which includes
- natural and human-modified ecosystems
- influenced by distinct ecological, historical, political,
economic and cultural processes and activities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_Terraces_of_the_Philippine_Cordilleras

4. Landscape approach
▪ Conceptual approach to understanding land
use that recognizes there are often competing
interests of different stakeholders
Source: http://peoplefoodandnature.org/blog/understanding-the-relationship-between-forests-and-agriculture-the-need-for-a-landscape-approach/

5. 1. Aims to reconcile
competing social,
economic and
environmental objectives
through national and local
level actions
- equitably address land-
use trade-offs
- enhance carbon-
intensive landscape
management
Landscape approach
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2011/09/brazils-
atlantic-forest-stores-less.html

6. Landscape approach
2. Aims to ensure the realization of local level
needs and action (i.e. the interests of different
stakeholders)
3. Moves away from the often unsustainable
sectoral approach to land management
http://inr.oregonstate.edu/

7. 4. Encourages collaboration
with industry within global
commodity supply chains to
improved land use
governance
- reducing carbon emissions
and pressure on natural
resources
Landscape approach
http://dinheirorural.com.br/secao/agrone
gocios/novas-garras-da-klabin

8. Scale of landscape approach
▪ Is defined by local
stakeholders:
- small enough to
maintain a degree of
manageability
- large enough to be
able to deliver
multiple functions to
stakeholders with
different interests.
Source: http://www.ridingbrazil.com/sj-farm-stays.html

9. Scale of landscape approach
▪ The boundaries are set by
stakeholders and may
correspond to:
- natural boundaries
- distinct land features
- socially defined areas
- indigenous territories
- jurisdictional and administrative
boundaries

10. Starting Point
▪ Shared understanding of
various stakeholder
perspectives
- Conflicts over resources
in landscapes are
exacerbated by
misunderstanding of the
perspectives and
motivations of other
stakeholders’
management or claims
on resources
http://rsb.org/activities-and-projects/smallholder-program-in-brazil/

11. Starting Point
Shared understanding
of:
▪ Spatial relationships
within the landscape
between different
land uses and land
users

12. Starting Point
▪ Shared understanding of institutional or
policy context
- Include an understanding the relationships
and power dynamics between institutions
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/CIFOR/assessing-future-impacts-of-land-use-policies-in-brazil

13. Starting point
▪ Information sharing
- one-way flow of information, often down top
▪ Engagement
- a two-way flow of information and exchange of views
▪ Collaboration
- joint activities, where the initiator, often the government, retains decision-
making authority
▪ Joint decision-making
- collaboration with shared control over decisions
▪ Empowerment
- control over decision-making, resources and activities is transferred to
other stakeholders.
A shared understanding of the appropriate level of
cooperation among stakeholders

14. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
▪ Conservation goals
- How can we conserve, maintain and restore
native biodiversity and critical ecosystem services
▪ Production goals
- Provide sustainable production of food, fuel, fiber,
forests, and fodder
▪ Livelihood goals
- Sustain and enhance the livelihoods and wellbeing
of people

15. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
1. Engage all relevant
stakeholders
- Including those involved in
external processes and plans
- Identifying hidden actors, such
as absentee landowners
- Identify land users who have
not traditionally been engage
in land use decision-making
process
Foster discussion between the
various stakeholders

16. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
2. Gather knowledge for
enabling
- responsible land use,
sustainable
development
- maintenance or
restoration of ecosystem
functions
Source: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-43662015000100070

17. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
3. Support improved land
use governance and
inclusive development
and responsive to
climate change
- Set objectives and
develop local ideas
and activities that
integrate public and
private interests

18. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
4. Identify level of openness
by different stakeholder
groups to engage in
collaborative landscapes
management
- Develop support from
corporate initiatives within
global commodity supply

19. 5. Develop an understanding of the relationship
between forest and agricultural sectors
ecosystem functions
Goals of Land Use Dialogue
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2016/03/16/forests-create-jobs-infographic

20. Goals of Land Use Dialogue
- intensification of forestry
and farming
- conservation and
restoration of ecosystem
services
http://www.natgeocreative.com/photography/1372586
6. Address the challenges of competing
demands for land and water use

21. Social learning and adaptive
management
▪ Focus on idea generation,
implementation, monitoring
and reassessing
- Is a new paradigm for
collaboration possible?
▪ Support the translation and
diffusion of new knowledge and
practices

22. Social learning and
adaptive management
▪ Stimulate adaptive social learning by
- involving actors at multiple levels—local
to global
- international actors amplify the impact of
national organizations and institutions

23. Challenges
▪ How can we move beyond the conceptual level towards
managing at the landscape scale for multiple objectives?
http://sdgs.peoplefoodandnature.org/

24. Challenges
1. How can we integrate public and private needs into
the landscape and foster public-private partnerships?
2. How can we reconcile the sometimes-competing
objectives of economic development and
environmental sustainability?
3. How do we move across institutional boundaries that
traditionally hinder integration?
4. How do we measure success (or failure) and define
whether a landscape is being managed
“sustainably”?

25. Sources
▪ The Sustainable Landscapes Books
http://www.commonland.com/_doc/GCPLittleSustainableLBDEC15_228876964.pdf
▪ Sayer, Jeffrey, Terry Sunderland, Jaboury Ghazoul, Jean-Laurent Pfund, Douglas Sheil, Erik
Meijaard, Michelle Venter et al. "Ten principles for a landscape approach to reconciling
agriculture, conservation, and other competing land uses." Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences110, no. 21 (2013): 8349-8356.
▪ DeFries, R., and C. Rosenzweig. "Toward a whole-landscape approach for sustainable land use
in the tropics." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 46 (2010): 19627-
19632.
▪ Frost, Peter, Bruce Campbell, Gabriel Medina, and Leonard Usongo. "Landscape-scale
approaches for integrated natural resource management in tropical forest
landscapes." Ecology and Society 11, no. 2 (2006): Articel-30.
▪ Cumming, Graeme S., Per Olsson, F. S. Chapin III, and C. S. Holling. "Resilience,
experimentation, and scale mismatches in social-ecological landscapes." Landscape
Ecology 28, no. 6 (2013): 1139-1150.
▪ Outcome Statement of the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum
http://www.landscapes.org/publication/2015-global-landscapes-forum-outcome-statement/
▪ Landscapes Measures Center http://landscapemeasures.info/?p=74
▪ Assessing future impacts of land use policies in Brazil. Presentation at the Global Landscapes
Forum 2015, in Paris, France alongside COP21 http://www.slideshare.net/CIFOR/assessing-
future-impacts-of-land-use-policies-in-brazil