Wetlands and Landscape Approaches

In this chapter we explore the ideas and concepts behind the growing interest in landscape approaches to environmental management, which offer the prospect of more sustainable and integrated planning interventions for reconciling the tensions between environment, economy and society. In particular, we discuss what landscape approaches have to offer wetlands, and how reconceptualising wetlands as social-ecological systems, whose emergent properties are a function of environmental and social interconnections within the wider landscape, can better inform management, policy, and sustainable development. The chapter starts by considering the origins and characteristics of landscape approaches, before reviewing their conceptual evolution, underpinning principles, and the challenges of integration into various wetland management initiatives. We then examine the experiences of the Functional Landscape Approach (FLA), a community-based package of measures implemented in parts of sub-Saharan Africa that has sought to deliver adaptive and sustainable wetland management. Finally, we conclude by arguing the need for greater integration of landscape approaches within the discourse, policy, and especially the practice, of wetland management, while recognising that this will require new forms of cross-sectoral coordination and governance.