The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, a World Heritage Cultural Landscape, demonstrate the
sustainable use of natural resources and an enduring balance between people and nature. UNESCO
/Spier-Donati
learnt from such land management, underpinned by the cultural traditions of the Ifugao people,
for wider application in the rice-growing tropics and beyond. Though the remaining conserved
watershed forests are important for the plants and animal life that survive there, more signi -
ficant is the area’s agri-biodiversity: farmers use numerous land races of rice, each subtly
adapted to local conditions in the relatively cool upland climate. The rice terraces are not
recognised under national law as a protected area within the IUCN system, but in fact they
manifest many of the characteristics of a Category V protected area; indeed they are given as a
case study in IUCN’s published advice on this topic (Phillips, 2002).
Therefore IUCN and ICOMOS together carried out the original assessment of the nomina -
tion of the site in 1995. They also undertook a joint state of conservation evaluation mission in
2001, which led to their inscription on the In Danger List at the Helsinki meeting of the World
Heritage Committee (December 2001), thus becoming the first Cultural Landscape to be so
listed. IUCN will continue to take a close interest in the area. Strategies for its future
management should draw on experience in the management of many Category V protected
areas elsewhere in the world. Examples are: integration of rice-growing with ecotourism; the
development of new markets for rice and rice wine from the region; and capacity-building
among the local community based on traditional values.
Fertö/Neusiedlersee cultural landscape
The Fertö-Neusiedler Lake area, located on the Austrian-Hungarian border, is an unusual and
diverse ecosystem, which has had a very long tradition of harmonious interaction between people
and nature. The lake itself, which normally has no outlet, is the largest saline water body in Europe
(309,000ha). The water surface and surrounding lands are subject to a variety of climatic effects,
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