Integrated Landscape Approaches Research Articles

Community participation in forest and water management planning in Kenya: challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT Forest and water are linked resources that are important to community livelihoods in East Africa. Sectoral reforms in Kenya have decentralized forest and water management functions to local communities through forest and water Acts. It has been argued that problems are more likely to be understood as interconnected, and thus managed more holistically, at the local level. Through case studies on the processes of developing forest and water management plans in two Kenyan ecosystems, we explore the challenges and opportunities for resource management planning at the local level. The questions we addressed are: How is the content of the plans determined? How is gender integrated ? What are the barriers to implementation? How can content and implementation be improved to support joint forest and water management? Despite their close links, water and forest governance is separate, as sectoral approaches nationally trickle down locally. We argue that the process of developing the plans should take an integrated landscape approach. A practical way forward is to improve current processes, by ensuring local participation and generating local ownership through improved facilitation and engagement of community members, including women. This includes the integration of community participants from both spheres into both forest and water management planning.

Scanning the solutions for the sustainable supply of forest ecosystem services in Europe

Forests are key components of European multifunctional landscapes and supply numerous forest ecosystem services (FES) fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of FES has the potential to provide responses to major societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or rural development. To identify suitable strategies for the future sustenance of FES, we performed a solution scanning exercise with a group of transdisciplinary forest and FES experts from different European regions. We identified and prioritized fifteen major challenges hindering the balanced provision of multiple FES and identified a series of potential solutions to tackle each of them. The most prominent challenges referred to the increased frequency and impacts of extreme weather events and the normative mindset regarding forest management. The respective solutions pointed to the promotion of forest resilience via climate-smart forestry and mainstreaming FES-oriented management through a threefold strategy focusing on education, awareness raising, and networking. In a subsequent survey, most solutions were assessed as highly effective, transferable, monitorable, and with potential for being economically efficient. The implementation of the solutions could have synergistic effects when applying the notion of leverage points. Seven emerging pathways towards the sustainable supply of FES have been identified. These pathways build on each other and are organized based on their potential for transformation: (1) shifting forest management paradigms towards pluralistic ecosystem valuation; (2) using integrated landscape approaches; (3) increasing forest resilience; (4) coordinating actions between forest-related actors; (5) increasing participation in forest planning and management; (6) continuous, open, and transparent knowledge integration; and (7) using incentive-based instruments to support regulating and cultural FES. These pathways can contribute to the implementation of the new EU Forestry Strategy to support the balanced supply of multiple FES.Graphical abstract

A Knowledge Review on Integrated Landscape Approaches

Holistic and multi-transdisciplinary approaches, where multiple goals are achieved in order to improve resilience in societies and ecosystems in the short, medium, and long term, are ideal, even utopian. Hence, science has come together with practical experiences that highlight the importance of working at a ‘landscape’ level. Landscapes, as socio-ecological systems, are key for sustainability and sustainable development, and they represent a realistic unit to interconnect local, national, and ultimately global scales. International efforts regarding holistic natural resources management approaches are not new; however, they are currently pointing to an Integrated Landscape Approach (ILA). Based on a documentation review and analysis, the present article review aims to promote the disambiguation of the ILA concept and provide an updated synthesis knowledge on the ILA. Especially for the forest sector, the ILA has been identified as particularly beneficial, strongly highlighted by the scientific literature, and with an infrastructure of organizations that are encouraging it. The paper presents the rationale of the science behind the concept, as well as the main principles, we identified a variety of definitions with some significant points of overlap, we highlight the inclusion of ILAs in the current international arena and the relationship of ILA’s and Jurisdictional Approaches, and we make a review of the ILA in a challenging world of rapid change. Our review recognizes ILAs socio-ecological management strategy to reconcile conservation, development, climate change, and human well-being goals. ILAs naturally have a social and idealistic construction behind it, which might be just as necessary andsignificant as the journey toward sustainability itself.

Evaluating planning without plans: Principles, criteria and indicators for effective forest landscape approaches

Protecting forests is an increasingly essential and urgent priority to address the climate and biodiversity crises. These forests are home to communities, often Indigenous communities, who are facing multiple pressures including industrial extraction (logging and mining), illegal activities, as well as population growth and development, all of which drive land use change, forest loss and degradation. Addressing these multiple pressures requires integrated landscape approaches. Landscape planning has an important role to play in forest protection and conservation, including in areas of tropical primary forest in developing countries. However, resource and capacity limitations mean that planning activities in these contexts are often informal and nascent, rather than highly formalised in planning documents, and evaluation is limited. Robust tools to guide evaluation in emergent planning contexts can help improve planning processes and outcomes, and guide planners (community-based and otherwise) to choose and apply the right planning tools for the context. This paper develops an evaluation framework of principles, criteria and indicators for assessing informal and emerging forest landscape planning processes. The framework is designed particularly for stakeholders involved in forest landscapes planning processes with few resources and where formal technical capacity is limited. The framework will help guide and improve landscape planning for forest protection and sustainability.

Transition zones across agricultural field boundaries for integrated landscape research and management of biodiversity and yields

Abstract Biodiversity conservation and agricultural production have been largely framed as separate goals for landscapes in the discourse on land use. Although there is an increasing tendency to move away from this dichotomy in theory, the tendency is perpetuated by the spatially explicit approaches used in research and management practice. Transition zones (TZ) have previously been defined as areas where two adjacent fields or patches interact, and so they occur abundantly throughout agricultural landscapes. Biodiversity patterns in TZ have been extensively studied, but their relationship to yield patterns and social–ecological dimensions has been largely neglected. Focusing on European, temperate agricultural landscapes, we outline three areas of research and management that together demonstrate how TZ might be used to facilitate an integrated landscape approach: (i) plant and animal species’ use and response to boundaries and the resulting effects on yield, for a deeper understanding of how landscape structure shapes quantity and quality of TZ; (ii) local knowledge on field or patch‐level management and its interactions with biodiversity and yield in TZ, and (iii) conflict prevention and collaborative management across land‐use boundaries.

Exploring the agricultural landscape diversity-food security nexus: an analysis in two contrasted parklands of Central Senegal

CONTEXTFostering diversity within agricultural systems can substantially contribute to improved food security among smallholder farmers. Agroforestry parklands are diverse agricultural landscapes where trees can provide an array of ecosystem services. Previous studies analyzing the agricultural landscape diversity-food security nexus in agroforestry parklands have only considered tree cover. OBJECTIVEWe propose an original empirical approach that combines the analysis of spatial data on agricultural landscape diversity with agricultural field monitoring and household surveys. These three sources of data were used to scrutinize the direct and indirect contributions of agricultural landscape diversity to food availability and food access. METHODSMillet yield was used as a proxy for food availability, and household food access was approximated using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) indicator. Two contrasted agroforestry parklands of Central Senegal were chosen as case studies. Firstly, we used a Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) algorithm to disentangle the relative contribution of landscape diversity, biophysical and crop management variables in explaining millet yield variability. Secondly, we investigated the pathways linking agricultural landscape diversity to HFIAS using a Correlation Network Analysis (CNA). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSThe GBM model explained 77% and 84% of millet yield variability for the two parklands, respectively, with landscape diversity variables accounting for 53% and 47% of relative influence. Among the landscape diversity variables, tree species richness and tree density were the most important ones. Millet yield was positively associated with tree density in the Nioro site until a threshold of 5 trees/ha, and with tree species richness in the two sites. The CNA showed that greater tree cover and larger tree patches were moderately correlated with HFIAS. This suggests that tree species with large crown, as it the case for most fruit bearing tree species in the region, are the main species contributing directly to food access. Agricultural landscape diversity contributed mainly indirectly to household food access through an “agroecological pathway”, i.e. by the provision of ecosystem services regulating and supporting crop production. SIGNIFICANCEUsing an integrated landscape approach relying on up-to-date remote sensing data and recent advances in data analysis methods, our study shows that tree species diversity matters as much as the amount of tree cover for the production of food, and it can contribute to improve food security. We bring a more nuanced picture of the contribution of agricultural landscape diversity to food security suggesting that land management policies supporting food security should consider both tree density and tree species diversity to optimize the co-benefits of trees for the different food security dimensions.

Spatial Tools for Integrated and Inclusive Landscape Governance: Toward a New Research Agenda

Participatory spatial tools—community mapping, PGIS, and others—find increasing resonance among research and non-governmental organizations to make stakeholder claims and community perspectives explicit for more inclusive landscape governance. In this paper, we situate the use of participatory spatial tools in debates on integrated landscape approaches and inclusive development. We show that using such spatial tools is not new but argue that their application for inclusive landscape governance requires a new research agenda that focuses on expanding the scope of application of the tools, improving the inclusivity of the processes, and developing new technologies.

Common ground: integrated landscape approaches and small and medium forest enterprises for vibrant forest landscapes

Common ground: integrated landscape approaches and small and medium forest enterprises for vibrant forest landscapes

Learning from Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Ghana and Zambia: lessons for integrated landscape approaches

Land use in much of sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by legislative frameworks based on a strong colonial legacy, focusing strongly on state control and minimal devolution of management responsibilities to local communities. However, attempts to reconcile conservation and socio-economic development by increasing stakeholder engagement in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) have been undertaken since the late 1980s. Based on a review of published literature on historical land-use trajectories, the evolution of CBNRM, and key respondent interviews with NRM experts in Ghana and Zambia, this paper asks: What lessons can be learned from CBNRM to inform integrated landscape approaches for more equitable social and ecological outcomes? The paper discusses the positive characteristics and persistent challenges arising from CBNRM initiatives in both countries. The former being, improved rights and resource access, an established institutional structure at the local level, and a conservation approach tailored to the local context. The latter include the absence of multi-scale collaboration, inadequate inclusive and equitable local participation, and limited sustainability of CBNRM initiatives beyond short-term project funding timelines. The paper argues that integrated landscape approaches can address these challenges and improve natural resource management in Ghana and Zambia. We urge landscape practitioners to consider how the lessons learned from CBNRM are being addressed in practice, as they represent both challenges and opportunities for landscape approaches to improve natural resource management.

How are the integrated landscape approaches implemented in natural environment policy in Japan?

In recent years, integrated landscape approaches are gaining attention as an effective policy concept to maintain biodiversity and human well-being in the secondary natural environment. This study ascertained the current status and issues related to recognizing and efforts to implement this concept for Japan's natural environment governance. The study first compared the relationship between this concept and the legal system through a literature review. Following which a questionnaire survey addressed to the Ministry of the Environment, Japan was conducted by the study to analyze the current status and issues related to implementing integrated landscape approaches. As a result, the study found that (1) while this concept has not been widely understood, there are many similar ongoing efforts; (2) there are legal system based efforts and also voluntary efforts as well; and (3) stakeholder participation, consensus building, securing of financial budget and human resources issues are challenges faced for effective implementation. Also, the result indicated additional supports are needed, including strengthening secretariat functions and sharing best practices to promote effective implementation.

Human insecurities in gold mining: A systematic review of evidence from Ghana

Adverse mining effects, notably the uncontrolled spread and consequences of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), are growing concerns in sub-Saharan Africa. A securitization discourse is often used to justify a military-style approach toward illegal mining but fails to acknowledge the multiple dimensions of insecurities arising from mining. A human security approach allows taking a more holistic perspective but has hardly been applied to the mining sector. We address this gap by unraveling the insecurities arising from gold mining in Ghana based on a systematic literature review of empirical studies on mining impacts across multiple disciplines. Results reveal that the reviewed literature predominantly focuses on environmental and health insecurities, less on economic, food, and community insecurities, and hardly on personal and political insecurities. Recommended governance responses increasingly call for multidimensional and integrated approaches, considering that gold mining – particularly ASM – is situated in multifunctional landscapes and part of multidimensional livelihoods. We conclude that a human security approach enables a comprehensive analysis of a country's mining sector but still bears the risk of a ‘securitization trap’. We therefore advocate multistakeholder dialogue and integrated landscape approaches as the way forward to deal with the insecurities arising from a mining sector largely characterized by informality.

Re-integrating ecology into integrated landscape approaches

ContextIntegrated landscape approaches (ILAs) that aim to balance conservation and development targets are increasingly promoted through science, policy, and the donor community. Advocates suggest that ILAs are viable implementing pathways for addressing global challenges such as biodiversity loss, poverty alleviation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, we argue that recent advances in ILA research and discourse have tended to emphasize the social and governance dimensions, while overlooking ecological factors and inadequately considering potential trade-offs between the two fields.ObjectivesBy raising the issue of inadequate integration of ecology in ILAs and providing some general design suggestions, we aim to support and incentivise better design and practice of ILAs, supplementing existing design principles.MethodsIn this perspective we draw on the recent literature and our collective experience to highlight the need, and the means, to re-integrate ecology into landscape approaches.ResultsWe suggest that better incorporation of the ecological dimension requires the integration of two approaches: one focusing on conventional scientific studies of biodiversity and biophysical parameters; and the other focusing on the engagement of relevant stakeholders using various participatory methods. We provide some general guidelines for how these approaches can be incorporated within ILA design and implementation.ConclusionRe-integrating ecology into ILAs will not only improve ecological understanding (and related objectives, plans and monitoring), but will also generate insights into local and traditional knowledge, encourage transdisciplinary enquiry and reveal important conservation-development trade-offs and synergies.

Integrated landscape approaches to building resilience and multifunctionality in the Kailash Sacred Landscape, China

Climate warming-induced rangeland degradation in arid and semiarid steppe imposes substantial threats to the livelihoods of people. But this dilemma can be solved by combining all sectors of agriculture, animal husbandry and tourism through their complementarity, i.e. by adopting integrated landscape ecosystem-based approaches. A number of experiences and lessons have been achieved in a specific sector for its successful development, but not in the multiple social, economic, and ecological systems. In this study, we uses the perspective of integrated ecosystem management to strengthen crop-livestock integration and innovative livelihoods, and propose a multifunctional Kailash Landscape to activate the inter-linkage among agriculture, animal husbandry, and heritage pilgrimage/tourism in order to achieve multifunction of the socio-ecological system. A case study of Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative in China was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by land use and land cover change and its consequence on multiple ecosystem services. Integrated landscape management was found to be effective in building resilience of socio-ecosystems by reducing the vulnerability of traditional agriculture in terms of improving crop production and animal husbandry. A multifunctional landscape is expected to be integrated and build a resilient sector complementarity including farming, pastorism, environmental and socioeconomic function. The analyses show that integrated landscape approaches provide an effective perspective for sustainable socio-economic development in this sacred landscape. The findings highlight the importance of landscape-scale ecosystem-based adaptation to environment change.

Do integrated landscape approaches moderate climate impacts on livelihoods? A review of the evidence from agricultural landscapes

Integrated landscape approaches (ILA) are being utilised to address issues at the intersection of rural development, conservation, and increasingly climate change adaptation. We undertook a systematic literature review to assess which facets of ILA provide climate resilience, the quality of the evidence base used to undertake such assessments, and which analytical approaches were used. We reviewed in detail 386 studies. We found 16 peer-reviewed studies presenting 48 cases of ILA-livelihood-climate interactions that analysed the climate moderating effect of ILA. With such a small sample, discerning a reliable signal of climate resilience from ILA or from facets of ILA is challenging. Most studies focused on the plot or farm level as opposed to higher or multiple spatial scales. This is at odds with the holistic notion of ILA which emphasises the multi-scalar nature of landscapes and their constituent human and environmental systems. However, we highlight the potential for combining the results of multiple individual studies that focus on facets of ILA to detect if a signal of ILA driven climate resilience exists. Only one study focused on how multi-stakeholder governance and institutional arrangements affect climate resilience. This omission within the evidence base precludes empirically grounded insights into the mechanisms through which different governance and institutional arrangements within ILA influence climate response capacity.

Unidades de paisagem e dinâmica temporal do uso e cobertura do solo na bacia hidrográfica do Rio das Pedras, Goiás, Brasil

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a inter-relação do meio físico com a cobertura vegetal, aliada à dinâmica temporal de uso do solo, por meio das unidades de paisagem. O estudo foi aplicado na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio das Pedras, no estado de Goiás, norteado por uma abordagem de análise integrada da paisagem. Para a definição das unidades de paisagens, foram consideradas as características geológicas, geomorfológicas, pedológicas e morfométricas da bacia. Na análise temporal de uso/cobertura do solo, foram considerados os anos de 1988, 1998, 2008 e 2018. Nas unidades geológicas mais dissecadas, se formaram topografias mais planas e, nas unidades mais resistentes, topografias mais inclinadas. Estas condições influenciaram a dinâmica de uso do solo, especialmente a agricultura, atividade que apresentou o maior crescimento no período, presente nas unidades de paisagem com solos mais planos, como os Latossolos. A pastagem é a atividade que ocupa as maiores áreas em todo o período analisado, estando presente em todas as unidades, mas apresentando redução em áreas ocupadas, sendo então substituída pela agricultura mecanizada. A cobertura de Cerrado não apresentou redução importante nos trinta anos, pois no primeiro mapeamento as áreas antropizadas já representava 77% da área da bacia, restando somente fragmentos de Cerradão e Mata Seca.

Integrating forest management across the landscape: a three pillar framework

Forests are vital ecosystems on a global, regional and local scale, but are under threat from a variety of competing land uses. Integrated landscape approaches have been proposed as a way to create sustainable land use for forests and forest communities through a more integrated, holistic approach to governing resources. A variety of principles for managing landscapes have been proposed as a framework for implementation, but these landscape approaches suffer from a limited theoretical and conceptual basis. This paper seeks to address such shortcomings by identifying and integrating the theoretical components of landscape approaches into a common framework. The paper analyses landscape disciplines, practices and activities and the implementation of common landscape-level principles in the context of forest landscapes to identify the underlying key components. The paper argues that management across a forest landscape must be underpinned by three pillars: ecosystem integrity, strong governance systems and effective planning processes.

Lessons learned while protecting wild chimpanzees in West Africa.

Though human activities are postulated to be the main drivers of the worldwide biodiversity crisis, humans are also suggested by some to be an important part of the solution to the crisis. How can such a paradox be best solved? This paradox requires an adaptive, context-specific, dynamic solution, at a fine-grained scale that varies by location. The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) works on the ground in three West African countries: In Côte d'Ivoire, where bushmeat consumption is a recurrent and generalized threat to wildlife, WCF used live theater performances in the villages to address this issue. Post-activity evaluations revealed that the more often individuals have been part of such awareness activities, the less they will consume bushmeat. In nearby Liberia, where illegal miners have invaded many protected areas and intact forests, the WCF supports Community Watch Teams (CWT) to patrol the Sapo National Park with Forestry Development Authority staff. Within 11 months of its creation, the CWT patrols around and in the Sapo National Park resulted in thousands of illegal miners progressively leaving the national park. In Guinea, where coexistence between humans and primates has prevailed based on religious traditions, the WCF developed a strategic approach, as the Moyen-Bafing National Park contains about 5000 chimpanzees as well as some 255 villages. Therefore, we adopted an "integrated landscape approach" whereby the community activities are planned in combination with initiatives increasing forest regeneration and connectivity in high conservation value areas. Communities in northern Guinea confronted with dramatic fluctuations due to climatic changes welcomed such activities that help them become more resilient and adaptable to those alterations. In conclusion, evidence-based information at the local level helps to resolve the conservation paradox by adapting with the local communities' context-specific dynamic approaches to enhance the conservation of great apes.

Envisioning the Future of Mosaic Landscapes: Actor Perceptions in a Mixed Cocoa/Oil-Palm Area in Ghana

The future and benefits of mosaic landscapes have been a source of scientific and societal concern due to increasing population growth, climate change, urbanization, and expanding agricultural commodities. There is a growing call for integrated landscape approaches in which landscape actors discuss trade-offs between different land uses with a view to reaching a negotiated decision on the allocation of land uses. Yet, the operationalization of such approaches is still in its infancy, and integrated methodologies to visualize actors’ landscape visions are still scarce. This study therefore presents a participatory spatial scenario-building methodology that uncovers local perceptions of landscape dynamics and needed actions in a mixed cocoa-oil-palm landscape in Ghana’s Eastern Region. The methodology visualizes landscape actors’ perceived plausible changes and desired future landscapes, and is designed to trigger discussions on actions needed to achieve these desired futures. Findings show that farmers and institutional actors are aware of their landscapes with future preferences coming close to actual landscape composition and spatial configuration, and that—contrary to common assumptions—only those in the oil-palm-dominated landscape who already experienced the drawbacks of increasing landscape homogenization desire a mosaic landscape. The paper concludes that the collective mapping process makes actors aware of challenges at landscape level and increases farmers’ negotiation power through active engagement in the process and visualization of their knowledge and visions. Application of the methodology requires dedicated funding, political will, and capacity to apply it as an ongoing process, as well as monitoring feedback loops.

A pixelated landscape survey in the forest: Merging space, time, and context at Monte Bonifato, Sicily

In this paper, we demonstrate a multi-layered, methodologically integrated landscape approach to site-specific survey. This approach augments systematic field survey methods with geospatial techniques for tight spatial control over data. Our methods build upon traditional ones to systematically explore challenging forested environments seldom subject to controlled surface surveys. We present a contrast between two different survey methods used in the initial year of fieldwork, the results of each, and our reasoning for choosing to continue with one approach over the other. The result of this work is what we are referring to as the “pixelated survey,” a combination of conventional methods and innovative, practical environment-specific techniques. This approach allows for relatively rapid spatial and quantitative analyses, facilitating a more holistic understanding of temporal changes to site boundaries and chronologically specific activity areas. Using the summit of Monte Bonifato, western Sicily, as a case study, we present preliminary results using this methodology in a wooded environment where surface visibility is limited, and occupation spanned from the Bronze Age to the post-medieval period.

Exploring the Potential and Contribution of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves for Landscape Governance and Management in Africa

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere Reserves strive for a harmonious interaction between humans and nature. As landscapes provide suitable units to mutually address matters of conservation and sustainable development, this study aims to explore the potential and realized contribution of biosphere reserves for landscape governance and management. We emphasize the role of stakeholder participation and cooperation as an overarching condition for integrated landscape approaches. The regional focus is on Africa, where multiple drivers of global and local change currently significantly impact the landscape. The study’s results are based on a literature review, which is complemented by four case studies from the biosphere reserves in Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and Benin/Togo. Findings show that in biosphere reserves, stakeholder engagement is crucial to gain community acceptance, foster intersectoral cooperation, and provide management with more legitimacy. To strengthen stakeholders’ capacities to mutually achieve conservation and development outcomes, international partnerships and research and education efforts proved to be successful. The flexible biosphere reserve approach to governance, which allows for integration with other land-management approaches, offers a suitable governance model for a landscape. Moreover, the biosphere reserve zonation concept can provide orientation to manage the “multifunctionality” of a landscape and address the associated trade-offs between different stakeholders’ aspirations.