The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

17. Conclusions – the protected landscape
approach: conservation for a sustainable
future
Nora Mitchell, Jessica Brown and Michael Beresford
“…we must ensure that national parks are transformed – we need to break with
traditional thinking, to catalyze a new vision, and to join hands in new partnerships.”
Nelson Mandela, opening plenary at the World Parks Congress
Durban, South Africa – September 2003
This collection of case studies from many regions of the world illustrates the successful
application of a protected landscape approach in a wide range of situations and circumstances.
This approach has a diversity of expression since it is adaptable and is interpreted and defined
by each place and its people – relying on their traditions as well as innovation and creativity –
listening to the voices of elders and to those of the next generation. These case studies
demonstrate how the protected landscape approach has been crafted from experimentation and
innovation over many years and in many places.
This approach does not focus solely on the protection of nature and biodiversity but rather
recognises the critical links between nature, culture, and community for long-term sustain -
ability of conservation. As described in the introduction, a fundamental aspect of this approach
is the complex meaning of the term “landscape”. In this context, landscape encompasses a
mosaic of land uses from cultivated to wild lands over a large geographic area that has been
shaped and influenced by human interaction over time. This multi-dimensional and dynamic
definition of landscape is a foundation for the protected landscape approach. This approach
confirms that stewardship depends on people and recognises the importance of an inclusive,
participatory, and democratic process for accomplishing conservation.
At the opening of the V th World Parks Congress in South Africa, Former President Nelson
Mandela (as quoted above) challenged participants from around the globe to break with
traditional thinking, embrace a new vision for protected areas, and create new partnerships.
The protected landscape approach meets this challenge. While remaining intimately tied to
Box 1.
The Durban Accord – a new paradigm for protected areas
In this changing world, we need a fresh and innovative approach to protected areas and their role in
broader conservation and development agendas. This approach demands maintenance and enhance -
ment of our core conservation goals, equitably integrating them with the interests of all affected
people. In this way the synergy between conservation, the maintenance of life support systems and
sustainable development is forged. We see protected areas as vital means to achieve this synergy
efficiently and cost-effectively. We see protected areas as providers of benefits beyond boundaries –
beyond their boundaries on a map, beyond the boundaries of nation-states, across societies, genders
and generations.
Source: www.iucn.org/wpc2003
233