Opportunities (and barriers) for the implementation of Landscape Approaches in land uses of Mediterranean Iberia

Abstract

Landscape approaches (LAs) aim to foster sustainable strategies that reconcile agriculture, nature conservation and competing land-uses. LAs have been advocated as strategic tools for institutional and actor-network coordination and cooperation. Ten principles for the operationalization of LAs are identified. Testing of LAs is still scarce across the Mediterranean, including in Iberia. This is despite the region being a hotspot for the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, that condense the majority of the challenges for which the Landscape Approach may be relevant.

In this paper we will argue and discuss how adopting a LA may help resolve some key land-use challenges faced in Mediterranean Iberia, and the main barriers to be encountered. Methods Firstly, we identified 5 key land-use trends in Mediterranean Iberia and examined the opportunity to tackle them via the 10 Landscape Approach principles. To test this, we examined the scientific and grey literature for each of these 5 trends. Based on this same body of literature, the key barriers were also identified. Results and discussion As it becomes obvious from the results in the previous table, there is ample potential to apply the 10 principles of a Landscape Approach to help resolve key land-use challenges in Iberian Mediterranean land-use systems. The following barriers could also be identified: i. Cultural barriers towards innovation, cooperation and mutual trust may prove especially tough to overcome, ii. Land property structures and related inequalities do not facilitate the implementation of negotiated and transparent negotiation mechanisms for the resolution of land-use related conflicts, iii. Administrative procedures are largely inflexible, hampering implementation of LAs and related principles