‘Landscape: does it help or undermine the cause of conservation?’

‘Landscape’ is a powerful idea but it can cause confusion, as it is used both to mean a scale of action and an integrated way of understanding the environment. The speaker will strongly argue that the landscape approach is essential for conservation in the 21st Century.

Landscape is a powerful idea that has recently received a boost in policy terms when the UK joined the European Landscape Convention. But it can cause confusion, as it is used both to mean a scale of action and an integrated way of understanding the environment. Some also fear that its incorporation into protected area strategies (as protected landscapes – or IUCN Category V), and the promotion of an approach like the UK National Parks, will undermine efforts to protect places in their more natural state. Indeed, some critics believe that these are not really protected areas as far as biodiversity conservation is concerned. The speaker will debate these issues, show how they are related to different cultural and professional perspectives and strongly argue that the landscape approach - whether it refers to scale or an integrated approach - is essential for conservation in the 21st Century.

Professor Adrian Phillips was trained as a planner and geographer. He worked in London on countryside topics for the UK government, in Kenya for the United Nations Environment Programme and in Switzerland for IUCN - the World Conservation Union. He was Director General of the Countryside Commission between 1981 and 1992. Since then, he has held a professorial post at Cardiff University, written numerous articles on conservation and landscape themes and edited a 12-volume series of Best Practice advice on the management of protected areas. Between 1994 and 2000, he chaired the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, and from 2000-2004 worked with IUCN on the World Heritage Convention. He now advises the UK Heritage Lottery Fund and is on the board of several national and local nature conservation, countryside and heritage NGOs in the UK, including the National Trust and the Woodland Trust.

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