Energy and Landscape

Overview "Energy and Landscape"

• Explaining the Landscape Approach

The Landscape Approach is a framework for the management of land and land-uses in a integrated and holistic fashion.  The genre of “landscape approaches” arose in response to the trade-offs that need to be made between conservation and development objectives. The landscape approach recognises the need to address the priorities of people who live and work within the landscapes concerned even when they conflict with the traditional goals of conservation.  Non-alignment between these two sets of objectives has historically posed a problem with no clear definitive formulations. 

The approach recognises that prevailing jurisdictional boundaries and fragmented administrative systems are mismatched with the multifunctionality of landscapes.  At its heart, the framework strives to move beyond this segregated land administration, which fails to acknowledge the profound interconnections and mutual interests that exist between land uses.  Land governance can only be optimised if governing structures match the sets of overlapping ecological, socio-cultural and economic networks that constitute a landscape, with decision-making moving from hierarchical silos to complex, adaptive and inclusive network structures. 

• What is the Global Landscape Forum?

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is a movement that puts communities first in addressing landscape-level issues. Having connected 3,000 organizations and 25,000 people through summits in Warsaw, Lima, London, Paris, Marrakech and Jakarta, along with a further 32 million online, the GLF has become the world’s largest science-led platform on sustainable land use. 

With science and traditional knowledge at the core, GLF outreach, events and projects are designed not only to spark dialogue, but also follow-through to impact in addressing some of the most complex and multi-stakeholder problems facing our earth and our communities.

Recognizing the multitude of diverse objecties found in landscapes - food, livelihoods, health, energy, biodiversity, business development, trade, climate regulation and water - and the need for holistic approaches, the GLF is founded on four principles, aiming to engage 1 billion people: connecting, sharing, learning and acting.  

Energy Technologies and Landscapes

Energy production and consumption are key aspects of a landscape and an essential component of the balance between human prosperity and environmental conservation.  Managed effectively, and supported by an inclusive and empirical dialogue, energy production can alleviate poverty and achieve other socio-economic goals without impacting the environment.  Mismanaged, however, energy can permanently degrade landscapes.

A comparison between the two largest hydroelectric powerstations in the world (which are also the largest powerstations of any kind in the world), the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Itaipu Dam in Brazil/Paraguay, is instructive.  The Three Gorges Dam has been widely criticised for the human and environmental consequences of its construction, which include significant landslides and the displacement of over 1.3 million people, with that number increasing as degradation continues. The Itaipu Dam, however, integrated a plan to create a buffer around the edge of the reservoir, reducing erosion and encouragin water to filter through the soil naturally.  Although farmers have migrated to the area to benefit from new, irrigated territories, a reforestation project has also been delivered to revive and maintain ecosystems. The measures taken to mitigate the negative effects of the Itaipu Dam, which are typical of hyroelectric power generation, are an example of the Landscape Approach in action:  a broad range of multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder initiatives based on an explicit acknowledge of social, economic and environmental concerns.  

Financing and Business Models of Landscapes

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The Landscape Approach seeks to recognise the economic factors that influence land use and reconcile these with land rights, community requirements and conservation in a way that is beneficial to all and, in the case of private enterprise, amenable to investment and conducive of growth.  

• Jobs might grow on trees in Ethiopia
• Q&A: Divestment from fossil fuels points to shift towards sustainable finance

Monitoring&Evaluation of Landscapes

• Understanding impacts of mining
• Success Factors for sustainable bio energy

Policy Framework

• Sustainable forest management

Climate Change and Landscapes

• More than “nice to have” – the real value of tropical forests

Case Studies 

• (e.g. the Tropical Landscapes Financing Facility (TLFF)
  

Further Information 

• Woodfuel Production Options

link to the GLF news feed?

Where does this article fit?

• Food or fuel? It’s a balancing act

Further Information

• Global Landscapes Forum
• Landscape Forum