Landscape Protection Research Articles

Mountain Cryosphere Landscapes in South America: Value and Protection

Mountain landscapes support hydric and biodiversity potential under different ownership and land use perspectives. A focal point justifying their preservation is often the legislation’s ethical endorsement. Yet, when scales for assessment diverge without a common analytical purpose, the protective measures may become either ambiguous or insufficient. By considering that mountain cryosphere landscapes have both subjective and supply values, we focused on approaches to protect them and examined conceptual dissonances in their assessment. This ambiguity was examined by analyzing the hydric storage potential of the mountain cryosphere in semi-arid regions in the Andes. We reviewed the technical aspects of cryosphere hydrology and how current legislation aims to preserve freshwater supply and non-instrumental value. The analysis found a clash between instrumental and non-instrumental values and, most importantly, the neglect of a temporal dimension for landscape evolution. Particularly, landscape protection becomes suboptimal as scales of analysis for use and non-use values diverge. Therefore, we recommend analyzing mountain cryosphere landscapes as overlapped sub-units bearing a unified potential (future value) as a hydric resource. This analysis should fit the most inclusive scale on which transaction costs reflecting needs and insurance values reflecting management quality are optimal.

Accelerated cropland expansion into high integrity forests and protected areas globally in the 21st century

Intact forests and protected areas (PAs) are central to global biodiversity conservation and nature-based climate change mitigation. However, cropland encroachment threatens the ecological integrity and resilience of their functioning. Using satellite observations, we find that a large proportion of croplands in the remaining forests globally have been gained during 2003-2019, especially for high-integrity forests (62%) and non-forest biomes (60%) and tropical forests (47%). Cropland expansion during 2011-2019 in forests globally has even doubled (130% relative increase) than 2003-2011, with high medium-integrity (190%) and high-integrity (165%) categories and non-forest (182%) and tropical forest biomes (136%) showing higher acceleration. Unexpectedly, a quarter of croplands in PAs globally were gained during 2003-2019, again with a recent accelerated expansion (48%). These results suggest insufficient protection of these irreplaceable landscapes and a major challenge to global conservation. More effective local, national, and international coordination among sustainable development goals 15, 13, and 2 is urgently needed.

Construction of Ecological Landscape Environment in Guanzhong Traditional Villages from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization

In order to supplement and improve the landscape evaluation system of traditional villages and play a positive guiding role in the specific protection and development of village landscape, this paper proposes the ecological landscape environment evaluation of traditional villages in Guanzhong from the perspective of rural revitalization. First of all, the relevant national and provincial evaluation standards are deeply studied, and the comprehensive evaluation system of the traditional village landscape in the Guanzhong region is constructed by using expert scoring and an analytic hierarchy process, which includes 6 criteria and 25 indicators. Three typical villages of different types and different development stages, namely, village A, village B, and Village C, were selected for landscape investigation and comprehensive evaluation. The results show that the weight of village location and landscape pattern is the largest, that is, the most important. The second is architectural landscape, with a weight of 0.236, accounting for a high proportion. Then, it is the natural landscape and street landscape, with a weight of 0.1-0.2. Finally, it is the intangible cultural landscape and landscape style protection, with a weight of less than 0.1. The alpha value of the comprehensive evaluation questionnaire of the village A is 0.984. The alpha value of the comprehensive evaluation questionnaire of village B is 0.941. The alpha value of the comprehensive evaluation questionnaire for the landscape of village C is 0.986, which is greater than 0.8. Conclusion. This study makes a comprehensive evaluation of the landscape of typical traditional villages.

Jaguar conservation in the American continent: the role of protected landscape and human-impacted biomes

Introduction: Worldwide, expanding human activities continue to be a threat to many large-bodied species, including jaguars. As these activities continue, it is critical to understand how home range sizes will be impacted by human-modified landscapes. Objective: To evaluate the importance of protected and unprotected land on home-range size across their range. Methods: We used home range data from 117 jaguars in several habitat protection categories and human biome types. We used a Generalized Linear Mixed Model to test home range and spatial overlap with conservation categories and human biomes. Results: Most home-ranges were in Jaguar Conservation Units (62 %), followed by Protected Areas (21 %), Indigenous People's Lands (10 %) and Jaguar Movement Corridors (3 %), where 76 % of the jaguars lived inside one the first three conservation types. However, outside of conserved land, Rangeland, Cropland, Seminatural land and other human biomes were also important (24 % of the individuals). Jaguars in Rangeland, Cropland and Seminatural land had the largest home ranges. Conclusions: Although conservation land was dominant, human-impacted lands appear to play a considerable role in satisfying the spatial requirements of jaguars.

Push and pull in the sustainable development of ecological landscape and ecological resources: A dual perceptions of tourists and service staff

AbstractThe protection of the ecological landscape and the development of ecological resources are vital in the development of the global green economy, Their win‐win coordinated development is influenced by factors such as nature, culture, and economy, and more attention should be placed on tourist perception and sustainable resource development. Previous studies have mainly focused on a single perspective and failed to comprehensively consider the coordinated relationship between ecological landscape and ecological resources. This research combined push‐and‐pull theory and applied empirical analysis to verify the structure of tourists' perceptions and the law of sustainable development of resources related to the development of ecological landscape in the new era. It extracted and analyzed 34 influencing factors and applied the analytic network process (ANP) to analyze each factor's weights, to propose an evaluation system for eco‐tourism sustainability development that can help the construction of ecological landscape in the future. The reconstruction and further development of eco‐tourism in the new era is reflected in the ideological and practical dimensions; from single‐perspective linear thinking to multi‐dimensional integrated governance; from conflict between resources conservation and development to collaboration; from isolated management to building a community with a shared future; and showing the transformation and innovation at multiple levels of individual, community, government and national governance.

Child Protection in Indian Programme and Legislative Framework: A Critical Analysis

The Indian Judicial System lags in addressing child trafficking, as it does not yet have a dedicated Act or law to address the issue of either human or child trafficking. The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill of 2018 still awaits a nod from the Upper House of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, to be implemented. However, a network of other laws, policies and schemes sets out measures to provide some preventive and rehabilitative services for children who are vulnerable to trafficking or have been trafficked. These include children who have lost one or both parents, live on streets, belong to low socio-economic background and have been abused, among others. Some of the laws and policies regarding safeguarding of children include the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015; Mission Vatsalya, 2022 and Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. The mentioned laws and policies have set up key mechanisms for child protection by the government in the Indian context. This article looks to identify such provisions across the Indian legislative and programmatic landscape that are instrumental in keeping children in the care of family as far as possible and providing them safe out-of-home care where family care cannot be provided. It also reviews how these provisions set up, or fail to set up, a safety net around children to protect them from trafficking. The article undertakes a critical analysis of child protection measures set up by the government in India to identify good practices as well as gaps in the judicial and policy landscape of child protection and trafficking. It analyses the Guidelines on Mission Vatsalya, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

“L’arte dei muri a secco”, confronti tra esperienze per la conservazione del patrimonio culturale dei paesaggi rurali

The European rural landscape has been designed for centuries by the art of the construction of dry stone walls and by the arrangement of terraced bands, becoming a cultural expression of identity common also to rural contexts geographically distant from each other. In 2018, eight European countries obtained the transnational recognition of the “Art of dry stone walls” in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The contribution questions, on the basis of some case studies, how UNESCO recognition can concretely favor the start of that necessary support for studies and conservation of the knowledge preserved in the experience of the workers, who often lack professional recognition and regulatory support. It also proposes an analysis on the processes of protection, management, enhancement and conservation of this cultural heritage. If some case studies express guidelines and identifiable as repeatable good practices, others appear to be the lack of adequate policies for the protection of value landscapes.

What is attractive rural landscape? Differences in the social and expert assessment of the changes in the rural landscape of the Carpathian region in Poland with regard to the need of its protection

Contemporary villages of the mountain region are subject to uncontrolled structural and spatial transformations, which cause deformation of centuries-old spatial systems of high cultural and natural value. The aim of the study is to confront the opinions of the inhabitants and experts regarding the condition of the cultural landscape of the villages in south-eastern Poland. This area belongs to the Carpathian region of Central Europe. The historical and economic conditions of the studied region, related to the functioning in the post-war period, and then its breakdown and the development of the free market economy, constitute an interesting background for the proposed research. Local communities still remembering the period of difficulties related to the period of systemic transformations, are currently experiencing a relative prosperity, many difficulties related to the period of systemic transformations, are currently experiencing a relative prosperity, which is also expressed in a completely new, previously unknown way of managing the landscape. Investments implemented in villages are associated by the inhabitants with the improvement of the standards and quality of life. They assess them rather positively. An expert assessment of these landscape transformations indicates their negative dimension and the risk of losing timeless values. The discrepancy in the assessment of experts and local residents creates difficulties in the protection of the rural landscape. Therefore, high-quality visual landscape features among rural residents is necessary from the point of view of its multi-faceted and effective protection. Local initiatives and actions in the field of industry policy should play a significant role in this respect by consolidating the images of a harmonious landscape in the public awareness.

Contributions of Social Media to the Recognition, Assessment, Conservation, and Communication of Spanish Post-Industrial Landscapes

The paper aims to draft how phenomena such as abandonment, territorial disarticulation, environmental pollution, socioeconomic imbalances, and heritage consideration issues that surround landscapes where industrial activity has ceased are reflected on social media in Spain. The research focuses on the most popular social media platforms in Spain: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. A manual sample strategy was conducted to ensure an individualized approach to user-generated content. Sampling was carried out separately for three aspects: (1) keywords at a general level, (2) terms used to define industrial landscapes, and (3) recognition of significant industrial landscapes related to governmental facilities built in the 20th century, wherein we take into account three potential profile types: (i) individuals; (ii) NGOs/associations and/or public administrations; and (iii) academics. The results show that social media platforms are widely used as tools to disseminate information about industrial landscapes, but the contributions of each platform are uneven and incomplete in relation to the reality of post-industrial landscapes. However, it is worth recognizing the added value that their possible interaction brings as a reference for current civic debates. How social media contributes toward mitigating the difficulties of recognition, comprehension, and protection of post-industrial landscapes is emphasized in our conclusions.

Outdoor recreation and the private forest owner: Place attachment, social values, and public access

IntroductionThe Swedish National Forest Program emphasizes that the forest can be more multifunctional where the values created by human experiences of the forest, i.e., social values, can be used for tourism and outdoor recreation, leading to rural development and sustainable growth. To develop multifunctional forests in this respect, private forest owners' perspectives on development are critically important. For example, the place attachment of the private forest owners affects how they manage their forests. Therefore, it is crucial to consider private forest owners' perspectives when planning land use.MethodThe study area is a region in southwest Sweden (Hallandsås) designated as a national interest area for outdoor recreation. There is interest in expanding and developing nature-based tourism, including trail systems, based on the perception of the areas as having great outdoor recreation value. This article aims to present findings from a study that investigated the potential for outdoor recreation development in the forests of Hallandsås. A questionnaire was sent out to private forest owners, which contained questions about social values, perspectives on the Swedish right of public access, development of outdoor recreation, and place attachment.ResultsThe results showed that private forest owners considered health, well-being, and a good living environment the most important social values of their forested lands. The identity and cultural heritage value of private forest lands and the value of working on the land were the second and third most highly identified forest social values. Outdoor recreation was not identified as a top forest social value.DiscussionThe analysis identified seven key factors that must be considered with outdoor recreation development, given concerns and the importance of other forest social values. Careful consideration of these factors and their interactions can provide a path for outdoor recreation development that is respectful to people and places. This consideration is at the core of landscape protection and management as interpreted by the European Landscape Convention. Forest owners' social values are a critical part of landscape quality objectives, along with planning that links public aspirations with landscape character.

Academic Literature on Compliance Programs, ESG, Corporate Governance, Fraud Prevention, Human Rights, Corruption, Data Protection, and SDGs

This academic summary provides an overview of key themes in recent open-access articles pertaining to compliance programs, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, corporate governance, fraud prevention, human rights, corruption, data protection, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as set forth by the United Nations. Scholars have extensively explored the significance of compliance programs in organizations, evaluating their role in ensuring ethical practices, legal adherence, and risk mitigation. Additionally, research has focused on the adoption and impact of ESG strategies, addressing their influence on corporate decision-making, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. Corporate governance remains a vital area of investigation, investigating board structures, executive compensation, and the effectiveness of governance mechanisms in enhancing firm performance and accountability. Simultaneously, efforts to combat fraud and corruption have led to analyses of fraud detection techniques, whistleblowing systems, and anti-corruption measures. The literature also highlights the evolving landscape of data protection, emphasizing regulatory developments, privacy frameworks, and organizational responsibilities in safeguarding data. Furthermore, there is a growing emphasis on the integration of human rights principles into business practices, exploring the implications of human rights violations and strategies for promoting responsible corporate behavior. Lastly, articles have explored the alignment of corporate practices with the SDGs, examining businesses' contributions to global sustainability goals.

Beyond nature conservation? Perceived benefits and role of the ecosystem services framework in protected landscape areas in the Czech Republic

Protected areas safeguard species and habitats, but also provide ecosystem services (ES) and quite often simultaneously protect landscape character and associated cultural values. Exploratory qualitative research and interviews specifically have been rarely used to investigate benefits of protected areas and associated challenges in their delivery as perceived by their managers. There is also a lack of attention to the potential role of the ES framework in nature conservation decision-making in protected areas. We address the gaps by identifying: (1) perceived benefits (by their managers) that protected landscape areas provide; (2) challenges and trade-offs that protected landscape areas face in delivering these benefits; (3) role of the ES framework in protected landscape areas decision-making. We conducted a qualitative analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews with heads of Protected Landscape Areas Administrations in the Czech Republic. Cultural or non-material benefits were the most referenced group closely followed by regulating benefits. However, the single most frequently referenced benefit was Habitat creation and maintenance, emphasizing the role of protected landscape areas in protecting and managing habitats and ecosystems. The positive and negative themes showed a key role of various types of land-use management (esp. agriculture and forestry) and their enhancing or deteriorating effects on specific benefits (esp. Habitat creation and maintenance). All respondents perceived future implementation of the ES framework as a possible contribution to support goals of nature conservation and decision-making in protected landscape areas. This study provides empirical evidence for a strong societal role of protected landscape areas by safeguarding specific benefits and their essential role in nature conservation. The use of the ES framework sheds light on key benefits of protected landscape areas but also key challenges and trade-offs in delivering these benefits.

‘The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales’ — A New Industrial World Heritage Site

ABSTRACT UNESCO’s inscription of ‘The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales’ as a World Heritage Site in 2021 added for the first time a cultural landscape of quarrying to the World Heritage list, the culmination of a 12-year bid process for Gwynedd Council as the promoting local authority. Its six Component Parts exhibit clear visual and functional relationships with the wider landscape of Snowdonia and the sea, but also significant differences in terms of extraction, processing, workers’ settlements and transport. These were described and analysed in a well-produced dossier informed by a comprehensive comparative study, which set out how Wales’ robust systems of landscape protection ensured their effective management, and made clear the strong political, business and community support which the bid enjoyed, based on clear goals and ambitions. Inscription makes clear that there is a strong case for other globally significant quarrying landscapes to become World Heritage Sites.

Soil loss tolerance in the context of the European Green Deal

Soil erosion by water, and the consequent loss of a non-renewable resource, is a relevant environmental issue which has economic, ecologic, and social repercussions. In the context of the European Green Deal, the increasing awareness of soil Ecosystem Services is leading to give the due relevance to this problem. Notwithstanding the recent soil conservation strategies adopted by the Common Agricultural Policy had positive effects, the concern regarding this topic is drastically increasing for the normalization of extraordinary rainfall events due to climate change. Recent events occurred in Europe demonstrated that landscape protection is often inadequate and interventions to prevent damages due to hydrogeological instability are scarce.The determination of a “tolerable” soil loss TSL is useful to establish a quantitative standard to measure the effectiveness of strategies and techniques to control soil erosion. However, soil conservation strategies/works designed by the mean annual value of the climatic variable, as the rainfall erosivity factor R, are not appropriate for some erosive events which produce intolerable sediment yield values. Therefore, the adoption of an adequate TSL, which could help to ensure the protection of soil functions and a sustainable soil use, should be a primary goal to reach for policy makers.In this paper, a new method to define the tolerable soil loss is proposed. This approach is based on the statistical analysis of the measured annual values of R and leads to the determination of the cover and management factor for which the maximum tolerable soil loss is equal to the annual soil loss of given return period. The analysis demonstrated that to limit soil erosion to the tolerable soil loss, interventions to change land use, reduce field length or apply support practices can be carried out.

The Endangered Ancient Cultural Landscape Heritage in Moravian Plains

The inventory of remnants from the pre-industrial cultural landscape in Moravia was conducted between 2016 and 2020 across 3075 cadastral areas. This comprehensive project, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, aimed to document the historical heritage systematically. By comparing the present land use structure through recent orthophotomaps with cadastral mapping from the 1820s-1830s, over 1100 areas re-sembling their appearance from almost two centuries ago were identified. The primary ob-jective of the current research was to discern connections between inventory results and regional as well as local terrain conditions. Historically, the prevalent land use featured narrow strips of fields, often supplemented by aristocratic estates. Unfortunately, only 96 segments of the ancient pre-industrial landscape have endured in the plains region. Among these, a mere 73 are situated on flat terrain (with slopes up to 3°), indicating the pronounced impact of homogenized land use, transforming the plains of Moravia into large, monotonous blocks of arable land. Assessing the preservation of the ancient land use structure, 16 remnants of the historical landscape with a dominance of large-scale use on former estates stand out as being in the best condition on the plains. Only 12 areas exhibit exceptional preservation of the land division into small plots, and of these, a mere seven are located on flat terrain. It is plausible that these areas, characterized by a detailed land tenure possibly dating back to the Middle Ages, represent a historical natural and cultural landscape heritage comparable in value to protected constructions and legally safeguarded natural areas. These specific regions should garner interest and prove suitable for voluntary forms of nature and landscape protection. URL: https://www.gcass.science.upjs.sk/

Оценка антропогенной нагрузки на территории Бештаугорского заказника

Introduction. The need for functional zoning of specially protected natural areas (SPNA) is due to the need to choose the most effective methods for protecting landscape and biological diversity, the presence of limited economic activity permitted on the territory of the protected landscape, as well as the recreational attractiveness of the territory of the Beshtaugorsky reserve. The need for zoning is explained by the diversity of natural complexes, the types of impact on them by various groups of visitors and the local population, and the corresponding management methods. Materials and research methods. The information base for the study was the materials of field studies of the influence of recreation on landscape components in the Beshtaugorsky reserve of the growing seasons 2021–2022. To identify the types of economic activity, multi-temporal remote sensing data (Landsat) were used. Spatial data processing was carried out using the geographic information system Qgis 3.10. Research results and their discussion. Modern methods of processing spatial data made it possible to identify the main types of land use of the Beshtaugorsky reserve, to map valuable resources and centers of high biodiversity, the growth of specially protected species. In the course of the work, the recreational load on 38 test sites was studied and mapped. The degree of influence of recreation is described, the stages of recreational digression of sites are determined. The result was the creation of a recommended scheme for the functional zoning of the reserve with the allocation of 4 zones within the boundaries of the protected areas and 2 outside the boundaries of the protected areas. Conclusions. Functional zoning of protected areas is a recognized effective method of territory modeling. The division of the Beshtaugorsky reserve into separate areas with recommended types and modes of use should contribute to the planning of management measures, the elimination of conflicts in nature management and the conservation of valuable biological resources through spatial and temporal restrictions.

Historical Pathways as Promotion and Protection of the Cultural Landscape: Tourism and the Camí de Ronda on the Costa Brava

This article reflects on the growing trend of cultural landscape appreciation and connecting landscapes with their broader heritage surroundings. It focuses on historical trails and their adjacent cultural and natural heritage as a holistic cultural landscape with a particular case from the Costa Brava. The paper links the concepts of natural scenery, identity, authenticity, coastal and cultural heritage, trails, routes and cultural tourism as the basis for understanding cultural landscapes in a heritage tourism context. This paper provides perspectives on how a coastal trail and its surrounding heritage can connect and be experienced as a cultural landscape, which includes architecture, art, literature and archaeology. The findings suggest five themes that connect the historical path with the region’s heritage landscape: the role of tangible and intangible heritage, the development of a heritage discourse, promoting a heritage route, the division of the route into three sections and their connections to tourism, and the acknowledgement of a unique cultural landscape. The totality of the heritage landscape with all its components complements, and is an integral part of, the coastal landscape that appeals to many tourists in the Costa Brava.

Features of the management of the territories of National nature parks

According to the data of the State Cadastre, at the beginning of 2021, the nature reserve fund counted 8,633 territories and objects with a total area of 4.1 million hectares, which was 6.8% of the country's area. These territories are under the authority of various departments. The main purpose of protected areas is to preserve unique landscapes, species of flora and fauna for future generations. Today, the task is to increase the area of the nature reserve fund. It has been established that national natural parks (NPPs) are one of the largest objects of the protected fund in terms of area. To date, 56 NPPs have been created, which occupy an area of 1,399,161 hectares, which is 30.6% of the entire nature reserve fund. Administrations have been created in national parks to implement the functions entrusted to the park. These include preservation and protection of unique landscapes, conducting scientific research, recreational activities and educational work. The territory of the park includes lands of different purposes. These are mainly forests and other wooded areas (60%), the sea - 21%, inland waters - 6%, agricultural land - 5%, For the effective management of the national natural park, projects are being developed for the organization of the territory of the NPP for the protection, reproduction and recreational use of its natural complexes and objects. At the same time, a project approach is used, which makes it possible to achieve the strategic goals of the park with the help of the proposed measures. It is proposed to grow energy willow on agricultural lands. The environmental component of the project is important, as we have zero carbon emissions when using willow as fuel, which is important at the current price of energy resources. A technological map of growing has been developed, the efficiency of growing energy willow in the territories of the Nobel NPP has been calculated.

One nature – many values for all: Gauja National Park

The ideas underlying nature conservation have changed over time, from a very narrow view regarding the protection of specific species to the integration of nature conservation into the context of global development. Different coexisting perceptions of natural values can also be observed within the same area, in this case the Gauja National Park. The establishment of the park was implemented within the framework of a different political regime, in the 1970s, in which the protection of cultural landscapes was prioritised. While today the state’s official stance represents the modern ideas of nature conservation, public opinion about nature protection is ambiguous. By studying the historical context and implementing other research methods, an insight was gained into the society’s coexisting, often different visions of what is valuable in nature. Ethical considerations, which are often expressed both in the media and in the opinions of the residents, show a lack of understanding of the existing nature protection system and its methods.

The Systems Approach in Soil Science and Landscape Science

The article describes the current state of the systems approach in two closely related scientific disciplines - soil science and landscape science. It is shown that, despite the widespread recognition of the need to apply the systems approach to solving topical theoretical and practical problems in these disciplines, it remains unrealized. This is manifested in the prevailing view of soils as systems rather than as elements of higher-order systems, the mixing of the basic landscape elements with their properties, the recognition of landscape systems and elements as spatially heterogeneous formations, the different understanding of emergent properties, structure, hierarchy of soil and landscape systems, and, as a result, in the absence of their unified system definitions, basic classification systems, consistent multiscale global maps, and, finally, a hierarchical decision-making system for sustainable management, protection and assessment of soils and landscapes. It is shown that such a situation is largely due to the conceptual-terminological confusion around the systems approach in philosophy. At the end of the article, the authors share their own experience in applying the systems approach in soil science and landscape science.