There is no consensus about the practical implications of the concepts “climate-smart landscapes” and the “landscape approach.”
Global challenges of poverty, food security, environmental degradation, and climate change are in the limelight. Recent high-level conferences—the Global Landscapes Forum, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, the United Nations Climate Change Conference—reflect the increased recognition of how all of these themes are connected.
Civil leaders, researchers, and policy makers are increasingly looking to the landscape approach as a solution to conservation and development challenges, but how do we know that it works?
There is particular attention for rural areas in the tropics, as that is where competition for land and resources is high, poverty and environmental degradation are persistent, and climate change is directly threatening people’s livelihoods. Researchers, policymakers, and civil leaders are looking to multifaceted strategies that could work to tackle these challenges in such places. Related to this, there is a growing body of literature on ‘landscape approaches and ‘climate-smart landscapes’, presenting powerful narratives for sustainable rural development.
In light of the emerging interest in the landscape approach, how can we be confident that it works?
The landscape approach and climate-smart landscapes are often presented as solutions to development and conservation challenges, but at the same time there is little consensus about how these concepts can be brought into practice. For our recent report on climate-smart landscapes and the landscape approach, we sorted through the literature to answer the following questions: What is a climate-smart landscape? What does the landscape approach mean in practice? How can a landscape approach be implemented? And, how do we know if it works? The report defines some of the key terms as follows:
Landscape: A landscape is a socio-ecological system that consists of a mosaic of natural and/or human-modified ecosystems. It is a fluid concept. The landscape of interest is usually defined on the basis of a management goal or a problem that needs solving. For example, it can be an area affected by flooding as a result of poor land management. It may also be a network of national parks and the agricultural areas that lie in between them, when the objective is to conserve a keystone species.
Climate-smart agriculture: Climate-smart agriculture refers to a set of agricultural practices that diversify livelihoods and protect environmental services in order to increase people’s capacity to adapt to climate change, while also reducing GHG emissions.
Climate-smart landscape: A climate-smart landscape is characterised by climate-smart practices at the farm level, a high diversity of land uses at the landscape level, and the deliberate management of land-use interactions to achieve synergies between mitigation and adaptation objectives.
Landscape approach: More than anything else, the landscape approach refers to a way of doing things. It is a process-oriented strategy that involves all stakeholders within a landscape to manage the area toward multiple economic, social, and environmental objectives. The common emphasis is on addressing landscapes as socio-ecological systems, working across sectors, and adaptive co-management.
Standardizing these terms offers a clean page for research and practice to build upon. Additionally, the publication addresses ways in which the concepts can be implemented and methods for tracking progress.
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Want to learn more about the landscape approach and what it looks like around the world? Download the new Tropenbos International report here.
From the blog: Seven principles for effective and healthy multi-stakeholder partnerships
Koen Kusters is an International Researcher who recently authored the Tropenbos book that is featured here, Climate-smart landscapes and the Landscape Approach.
The photos were provided by Tropenbos International.
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