Landscape of culture and culture of landscape: does landscape ecology need culture?

Abstract

The objects of study in landscape ecology becomeincreasingly ‘‘cultural.’’ Humans now appropriateabout 24% the Earth’s terrestrial net primary pro-ductivity (Haberl et al. 2007), and almost all ecosys-tems and landscapes around the world have beeninfluenced or even ‘‘domesticated’’ by humans(Kareiva et al. 2007). Landscapes are endowed with,and continue to foster the development of, cultures,legacies, and stories. Landscape ecology needs toincorporate the different dimensions of landscapes,especially those concerning human–environmentalrelationships. However, the cultural dimension oflandscapes has been neither adequately studied norconsidered ‘‘mainstream’’ in contemporary landscapeecology. To move forward, we need to develop adeeper understanding of cultural landscapes, andconnect culture with nature more consciously andmore effectively in landscape ecological research.Cultural landscapes—what are they?The term ‘‘cultural landscape’’ has been a fundamen-tal concept in geography, and was first defined as‘‘landscape modified by human activity’’ by theGerman geographer Friedrich Ratzel in the 1890s(Jones 2003). The term was introduced to English-speaking countries in the 1920s by the Americangeographer Carl O. Sauer who, in his seminal book,stated:The cultural landscape is fashioned from anatural landscape by a cultural group. Culture isthe agent, the natural are the medium, thecultural landscape is the result (Sauer 1925).Since the 1960s, the concept of cultural landscapehas been widely used in human geography,