Trade-offs and synergies in multifunctional landscapes

Landscape parks are key players in rural development, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity protection and nature education. The proposed working group wishes to bring together researchers working with \protected multifunctional landscapes\ (such as the newly initiated Landscape Parks in Flanders).

The 3 research questions are:
1. In which way is \landscape\ used as a boundary concept to mobilize local stakeholders and to stimulate land stewardship among land-owners and -users, and what are the consequences of this use?
2. What are field-proven, co-creative strategies to overcome trade-offs/frictions between biodiversity conservation and needs of local people and visitors in landscape parks? How are issues of justice, inequality, and power imbalances addressed to solve such issues?
3. Which types of governance arrangements have proved successful to overcome institutional fragmentation?

We will select eight landscape parks in Europe and beyond, with different socio-political contexts. Based on interviews with involved actors, we will answer the research questions and have them validated by a larger group of landscape managers. This will result in contributions in scientific journals and at a conference, as well as a manual for landscape park owners, in cooperation with the EUROPARC federation.