Convention on Biological Diversity and European Landscape Convention: An Alliance for Biocultural Diversity?

Abstract

While the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) addresses the safety of species and ecosystems diversity, the European Landscape Convention (ELC) stresses the importance of preserving, managing and creating high-quality landscapes encompassing both natural and man-affected ones, in accordance to cultural values and taking into account people’s perceptions of landscapes. This recent pan-European policy may be a strong support to widen the application of the CBD, but is this really happening? As a matter of fact, although almost all of the European Member States have ratified both the CBD and the ELC, it is not obvious at all that respective national policies proceed in an integrated way. The paper will focus on the potential interactions between the CBD and the ELC in sustaining biocultural diversity, then a brief overview, will show how the landscape conception promoted by the ELC is influencing sectorial biodiversity national policies.