Operationalising the landscape approach: Josh van Vianen, James Reed, Jos Barlow, Terry Sunderland Journalists workshop 15-18th November 2016, Bali

1. Operationalising the landscape approach:
Josh van Vianen, James Reed, Jos Barlow, Terry Sunderland
Forestry for sustainable future: The role of
integrated landscape approaches
Journalists workshop 15-18th November 2016, Bali

2. What are landscape approaches
and how effectively have they been implemented in the
tropics?

3. Global issues felt at all scales
• Poverty: 900 million people surviving
on less than $1.90 per day
• Food insecurity: 795 million people remain
undernourished globally
• Biodiversity loss: Multiple drivers of ongoing
biodiversity loss
• Climate change: pervasive overarching issue
• Continued rise in CO2 emissions and
increasing frequency of extreme events

4. (Integrated) Landscape
Approach frameworks
Landscape approaches are the latest in an evolution of
integrated attempts to reconcile C&D.
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010 -
present
1980s: Integrated
Rural Development 1998: Integrated
Natural Resource
Management (INRM)
1985 onwards:
Integrated
Conservation &
Development projects
(ICDPs)
Contributing Sciences:
Ecosystem
Management
Landscape Ecology
Island biogeography
Conservation rooted
frameworks e.g.
“Ecosystem Approach”
1992: “Landscape Approach” first
documented (Barrett 1992)

5. Landscape approaches: integrated solutions at
landscape scales
• Is a Framework to integrate policy and practice for
competing land uses through adaptive and integrated
management systems
• Aims to address global challenges of Poverty, food
insecurity, climate change and biodiversity loss
• Addresses inter-connected social, environmental,
economic and political challenges
• Uses participatory, inclusive negotiation and planning to
minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies
See: Reed et al. 2016 - Integrated landscape approaches to managing social
and environmental issues in the tropics: learning from the past to guide the
future

6. Where are landscape approaches being
implemented?
1 (5 countries represented)
2 (1)
3 (2)
4 (1)

7. Unpublished

8. Theory: what we found
Broad agreement
• Evaluating progress within a landscape is fundamental to
determining where gains or losses are being made
• Governance structures that are hybrid, multi-level and cross-
sectoral are best suited to these frameworks
• One size doesn’t fit all and we must acknowledge the need for
contextualisation
• Inclusive, participatory stakeholder negotiation can help
align local socio-cultural and global environmental concerns
• Acknowledgement of dynamic processes and perverse
outcomes
See: Reed et al. 2016 - Integrated landscape approaches to managing social
and environmental issues in the tropics: learning from the past to guide the
future

9. Factors influencing “success”

10. Why aren’t there more landscape
approaches being implemented in
practice?
Barriers to implementation:
• Ongoing development of theory may be stimulating time
lags
• The proliferation of terms associated with landscape
approaches may be impeding policy and practice progress
• Operating silos persist at all levels and scales
• Engaging multiple stakeholders is sometimes just seen
as a box-ticking exercise to satisfy project requirements
• Monitoring remains the least well developed area of
landscape approach application

11. Conclusions
The theory of landscape approaches
is well developed
Lack of implementation on the
ground
Landscape approaches need to be
processes not projects
Now is the time to put theory into
practice and test how these
frameworks will work going forward

12. Thanks for listening!
For further information:
Josh van Vianen: j.vanvianen@cgiar.org
Terry Sunderland: t.sunderland@cgiar.org