The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

17. Conclusions – the protected landscape approach
Several authors in this volume develop principles for planning and management that create
an inclusive, participatory approach. Based on successful experience with the Mata Atlantica
Biosphere Reserve serving as a coordinating institution, Clayton Lino and Marilia Britto de
Moraes offer lessons for “strict principles of participation, decentralization, transparency, and a
search for consensus…” combined with “administrative flexibility and a lack of bureau -
cracy…[and a process that] involves simultaneous and equal participation of governmental
institutions (federal, state, and local) and non-governmental participants (including NGOs, and
members of the scientific community, the private sector and the local population)”. Other
authors note that this proactive participatory management process proved effective in guiding
landscape change.
Some form of national or international designation of protected areas can serve as an
important tool and catalyst for conservation. Experience with World Heritage Site designation
has illustrated the catalytic effect “on cultural identity and pride, and on potential partner ships
and innovative conservation approaches”. Villalón reports the positive impact on conser vation
action when the rice terraces were listed as a World Heritage Site “In Danger”.
Overlapping designations can serve to create linkages among conservation areas across a
landscape. In Brazil’s coastal zone, an international biosphere reserve by UNESCO and a
national APA, are used as complementary designations with each other and with other kinds of
PAs. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Australia is designated as an IUCN Category II and a
Biosphere Reserve and is also listed as a World Heritage cultural landscape. This layering of
designations has assisted in the recognition of the diverse set of values of this place.
However, it is also noted by several authors that the emphasis on “official” protected areas
tends to overlook that rural people conserve vast areas of land and bio diversity informally, and
that conservation of these areas by community (CCAs) pre-dates government-managed pro -
tected areas. Community-Conserved Areas and co-management systems illustrate the variety
of ways communities are engaged in conservation from manage ment systems, land tenure, and
legal instruments to the recognition and adaptation of traditional systems and traditional
knowledge of conservation. An IUCN inter-Commission Working Group, the Theme on
Indigenous/Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas (TILCEPA), has been in stru -
mental in the recognition and continuing role of these communities in conserva tion.
7. The protected landscape approach contributes to a
sustainable society.
A synthesis of environmental and social goals is fundamental to the protected landscape
approach. Many authors stressed the importance of perceiving conservation as part of a
“dynamic system” that needs to be “economically and socially viable to survive”, and stressed
the importance of “innovative economies”. Budhathoki summarised these points as a “growing
understanding that for biodiversity conservation to be sustainable, appropriate socio-political
as well as ecological landscapes are necessary”. Giles Romulus demonstrates the importance of
addressing community development and quality of life improvements alongside conservation
in small island nations in the Caribbean. Successful experience in Kenya and Namibia also
focused on “community welfare as well as conservation of natural resources”. In Nepal, the
buffer zones and conservation areas proved to be effective by linking conservation with
poverty alleviation. Maretti notes that IUCN’s Category VI “highlights the key role played by
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