The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
present-day Europe. Their future is driven by committed and competent local leaders who share
a vision of sustainability, care for local heritage, are open to learning and to innovations, and
are able and willing to cooperate with broader regional, national and international networks.
The case-studies from the White Carpathians and Frdlantsko demonstrate the important
role NGOs can play in bringing new vision, change and innovation to traditionally conservative
rural areas while building on local roots and heritage. The land stewardship approach has
emerged as a particularly powerful tool for implementing those visions locally. Its strength is
that it is based on cooperation with land-owners, farmers, municipalities and small businesses.
While people used to expect nature conservation to be the role only of the government, now
they understand that it can be the role of other actors, too. Through land stewardship, the
sophisticated concept of public-private partnership is being implemented in dozens of
protected areas in Central Europe. This strengthened role for the NGO sector, and the growth in
participatory and cross-sectoral approaches, contributes to developing civil society in the
region.
The Environmental Partnership for Central Europe, inspired by the work of international
partners – such as QLF, the Antioch New England Institute (US), the International Centre for
Protected Landscapes (UK), Project for Public Spaces (US), and others – now aims to
implement in the Czech Republic and in Central Europe a broader range of techniques for
participatory planning in communities. They include, among others, methods for:
interpretation of local heritage – an excellent tool for improving the often conflicting
relations between nature conservation authorities and local people;
community visioning – for use in communities where partners are ready for more
sophisticated cooperation, where it can help to launch a participatory process of formu -
lating and implementing a community’s vision for its future sustainable development;
and
planning of public spaces – in towns and villages, as well as in protected landscapes.
Public participation is a key condition for success in reforming new democracies in Central
Europe. Participatory approaches to conservation and sustainable development in protected
areas, such as Protected Landscapes, are helping to foster civil society in the Czech Republic.
Sharing experience in these methods through international exchange has helped to show a way
forward.
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