As another year is coming to a close, the Landscapes Blog is taking a moment to reflect on the events and accomplishments that captured our attention in 2013. The Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative filled its second year with new engagement with landscapes, stakeholders, and policy processes.
‘Landscapes’ have begun to pervade the sustainable development parlance, placing increasing importance on clear communication of what a ‘landscape approach’ and ‘integrated landscape management’ mean. An outline of ten principles by Sayer et al. earlier in the year put forward a set of widely agreed upon guidelines for landscape approaches, noting the presence of multiple goals, multiple benefits, and multiple stakeholders. Similarly, a policy brief by EcoAgriculture released toward the end of the year teased out key elements of successful integrated landscape management, including management for interactions between different parts of a landscape and collaborative process. The continental reviews – for which Africa and Latin America were completed this year – tried to capture the range of initiatives currently following such integrated landscape management.
In addition to documenting what is already taking place, the Landscapes Initiative began putting these principles into practice and helping to strengthen ‘focal landscapes’ already working toward integrated approaches. A multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange, the first in a series of dialogues, was held in late November in the Maasai Steppe Heartland of Tanzania. The message of the dialogue? Coordination – of activities across sectors, of awareness building efforts and messages between stakeholder groups.
Working collectively was also a theme that arose in the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative’s business engagement activities. The production of Reducing Risk: Landscape Approaches for Sustainable Sourcing highlighted a growing recognition of the direct reliance on natural resources and ecosystem services for efficient and effective business performance. Adopting a landscape lens and assessing risk beyond the farm scale is seen as a critical means for achieving sustainable business operations and long-term supply chain viability.
Most recently, the Global Landscapes Forum, held in conjunction with the UNFCCC 19th Conference of the Parties in Warsaw, drew together various actors involved in landscape approaches at a two-day meeting of thought leaders. Sara Scherr, president of EcoAgriculture Partners, spoke during the first plenary, adding definition to ‘integrated landscape management’ and setting the stage for the ensuing panels and discussion. The event captured much of the energy and enthusiasm being generated around landscape approaches, and bodes well for developing collaborative and innovative solutions to the pressing challenges for people, food, and nature.
We hope to continue engaging with the broader landscape management community, and cultivate a new crop of guest authors in 2014. So let us know if you would like to share your landscapes work in the year ahead.
Related Posts:
Africa Review Case Study: The Namibian Coast: A Land of Fish, Fowl, and Following the Rules
Latin America Review Case Study: Serrania de los Paraguas Diversidad para la Resiliencia
Comments are closed.