Why it works

Integrated approach

Businesses, government bodies and local communities each have a stake in a landscape. These stakes often differ between the various stakeholders and are sometimes conflicting. In a river basin, for example, the government needs to provide clean drinking water to its citizens, while the agricultural sector needs water for the cultivation of crops and citizens need water to meet their daily needs, such as cooking and washing.

Beside water, the landscape also provides us with other goods and services. Forests for instance, provide us with timber, help climate resilience and retain water in the ground. Many species also depend on the landscape for access to food and water or migration routes.

Biodiversity as starting point

In the landscape approach, the interests of the various parties in the landscape are considered in an integrated way and aligned with each other through dialogue. As biodiversity underpins the stability of an ecosystem, it forms our starting point for integrated landscape management.

Sustainable and inclusive

To keep ecosystems healthy, we need to find a balance between economic, environmental and social values. In many countries around the world, civil society organizations, who voice the interests of local communities and nature, are insufficiently involved in decision-making on developments in a landscape. IUCN NL helps them to gain more influence in the processes around natural resource management.