Cultural landscapes

Being defined as the “combined works of nature and of man”, cultural landscapes focus on sustainable land-use techniques, where the local population take into consideration the limits of the natural environment. They constitute a traditional form of land-use that are beneficial for the biological diversity and the cultural diversity for human well-being. They constitute an important landscape in the Mediterranean region, but have long been studied both by social  and natural scientists from different perspectives.

Wann und warum sind bestimmte Tierarten in den Alpen gefährdet, wenn Freizeitsportler in ihren Lebensraum eindringen? Unter welchen Bedingungen können Freizeitaktivitäten unbesorgt ausgeübt werden? Worauf sollten Wanderer, Snowboarder etc. im Umgang mit den Alpentieren achten? Inwieweit können sich Tiere an Freizeitbetrieb gewöhnen? Solchen und ähnlichen Fragen widmen sich die Autoren dieses Buches.

More than 400 colour pictures illustrate typical natural ecosystems and cultural landscapes. The focus is on the ecological conditions and characteristics that have a particularly strong influence (e.g. fire as an ecological factor, human use of natural resources, physiological adaptations). The aim of the book is to develop a causal understanding of the individual habitats.

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 set the contemporary standard for cultural and natural conservation. Today, a place on the World Heritage List is much sought after for tourism promotion, development funding, and national prestige. Presenting case studies from across the globe, particularly from Africa and Asia, anthropologists with situated expertise in specific World Heritage sites explore the consequences of the World Heritage framework and the global spread of the UNESCO heritage regime.

There is a growing recognition that living well must go beyond economic and material plenty to encompass social and spiritual well-being. This book provides an introduction to the concept of human well-being as it relates to international rural development and conservation policy and practice. It demonstrates that well-being is understood and managed in a variety of ways in different cultures but also across the geographical scales at which decision-making processes take place, from the local, to regional, national and international scales.

This study arises from concern that New Zealand is losing its important natural and cultural landscapes. It draws together literature on landscape protection in New Zealand and elsewhere, includes a review of case law, and contains material gathered from case studies of the Waitakere Ranges, Coromandel Peninsula, Wakatipu Basin, Banks Peninsula and Whangarei District. The study focuses on the protection of important landscapes, on privately owned land, from the impact of urban and rural-residential development and associated infrastructure.

This publication includes the outcomes of the workshop by the same name, held in Malaga from 26-28 September 200s and co-organized by the IUCn Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and the Environment Andalusian Regional Government. It is structured in four chapters. In the first chapter, environmental connectivity in the Mediterranean basin context is introduced. The second deals with concepts and general approaches in relation to environmental connectivity and protected areas. The third chapter refers to case studies on connectivity from around Mediterranean countries.

This collection includes essays on the themes of legislation, landscape, diversity, subsistence, and management. Five chapters focus on Slovenia, seven on other European countries, and four on countries elsewhere in the world.