Abstract
The Euro-Mediterranean coastal area is an ‘artificial’ landscape par excellence, having been moulded by thousand-year-old anthropic activities. Here, biodiversity values are largely determined by human actions, so that biological and cultural diversity are inextricably linked. A landscape approach to planning and management of these areas, one that focuses both on natural and cultural aspects of conservation, is therefore necessary. This statement, which could seem quite obvious, has been only recently recognized by the main international policies for Euro-Mediterranean coastal areas, where landscape has until recently played a minor role compared to naturalistic and socio-economic aspects. An example of landscape-oriented strategies aimed at conserving both natural and cultural diversity is represented by the policies developed by some Regional Parks—all classified as ‘Protected Landscapes’ (category V Protected Areas, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature classification system)—situated along the coast of the Latin Arc countries. This paper presents the management experiences developed inside these areas, highlighting their innovative approach to conservation and envisaging the more general role that Protected Areas, and Protected Landscapes in particular, could play in the wider context of the Euro-Mediterranean coastal landscape.
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Notes
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‘Through the centuries, rural communities have managed their environment and farmed the land in their own natural way, creating a rich diversity of landscapes, choral representation of historical identity of the territory and cultural human heritage. We now tend to recognize in that model of development the precursor of “sustainability”’ (Guarino et al. 2015). ‘Many (…) traditional cultures have developed livelihood practices that inevitably alter the landscape, but do so with care so as to ensure natural resource security into the future (…)’ (Pretty et al. 2008: p. 5).
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Today, there is an evident ‘(…) spatial dichotomy between strong, heavily populated coastal areas, characterised by high intensity of land use and consumption, and inevitably weaker, thinly populated inland areas with lower housing density and a less dynamic economy' (UNEP, MAP, PAP/RAC 2001: p. V). On the contrary, until the first half of the Twentieth Century, coastal and inner areas have been strictly related, particularly due to the integration between fishing and agricultural activity and to the transhumance practice.
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A pioneer document, signed by the Presidents of the Regions of Andalucia, Toscana and Languedoc Roussillon, that was an important step towards the drawing up of the European Landscape Convention (Nègre 2001): ‘In March 1994 (…) the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (…) called on its succeeding body, the CLRAE, to draw up, on the basis of the Mediterranean Landscape Charter (…) a framework convention on the management and protection of the natural and cultural landscape of Europe as a whole’ (CoE 2000).
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‘The diversity of Mediterranean landscapes contributes to local and regional identity, reflecting the past and present relationships between the man and his natural and built environment. Very rich cultural landscapes have been developed through many millennia when different human populations, cultures, and religions flourished around the Mediterranean and developed coastal landscapes as a result of land transformations in order to produce food, build living habitats, art, etc. Nowadays, however, increasing threats to cultural identity, heritage and landscape diversity of the region due to external (e.g. globalisation) and internal factors (e.g. rapid urbanisation of coastal areas with consequent impacts on traditional socio-economic structures) can be witnessed constantly. As a result, natural and cultural (man-made) landscapes have deteriorated significantly in several coastal areas’ (UNEP, MAP, PAP/RAC 2006: p. 1).
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Contrary to the EU Recommendation 412/2002 on ICZM, which does not mention landscape. In the ICZM Protocol there is even an article (art. 11, ‘Coastal landscapes’) that specifically addresses the need for protection of the coastal landscape: ‘The Parties, recognising the specific aesthetic, natural and cultural value of coastal landscapes, irrespective of their classification as protected areas, shall adopt measures to ensure the protection of coastal landscapes through legislation, planning and management (…)’ (UNEP, MAP, PAP/RAC 2008: art. 11).
- 8.
IUCN recognises six categories of Protected Areas, defined by their management category: Strict Nature Reserve (Ia) and Wilderness Area (Ib), National Park (II), Natural Monument (III), Habitat/Species Management Area (IV), Protected Landscape/Seascape (V) and Protected Area with Sustainable Use of Natural Resources (VI).
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‘(…) there is a strong global consensus within the conservation community that the principal role of protected areas is nature conservation’ (Watson et al. 2014: p. 68). A protected area is: ‘A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values’ (Dudley 2008: p. 8). In the context of this definition ‘nature always refers to biodiversity, at genetic, species and ecosystem level’ (Dudley 2008: p. 8).
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The main objective of the category, as defined by the IUCN guidelines, is ‘to protect and sustain important landscapes/seascapes and the associated nature conservation and other values created by interactions with humans through traditional management practices’ (Dudley 2008: pp. 20–21).
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Also traditional practices changed from the vigne en gobelet cultivation method (low vines, able to survive in the winding inner, mountain areas) to the vigne palissée cultivation method (high vines, situated in the plains, that facilitate the use of mechanic tools and pesticides).
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For a closer examination of the matter, see FPNRF (2008).
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Landscape is a dynamic entity par excellence: ‘it inevitably changes and evolves over time, in response to natural processes and to the changing needs and activities of people’ (Phillips 2005).
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‘Protective measures (…) should not be designed to stop time (…). They may guide changes in sites in order to pass on their specific, material and immaterial features to future generations’ (CoE, Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the guidelines for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention, 2008).
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‘Category V protected areas can seek to maintain current practices, restore historical management systems or, perhaps most commonly, maintain key landscape values whilst accommodating contemporary development and change (…)’ (Dudley 2008: p. 22).
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‘Since people are considered to be the stewards of the landscape or seascape in category V protected areas, it is important to understand (…) the extent to which decision making can be left to local inhabitants and how far a wider public interest should prevail when there is conflict between local and national needs’ (Dudley 2008: p. 22).
- 17.
The effectiveness of PAs is a crucial topic indeed. There are studies that point out the current, significant shortfall in PAs effectiveness (for an overview on the matter, see Leverington et al. 2010). However, PAs can still be considered as extraordinary experimental laboratories of territorial and landscape policies, above all in those countries where there is an adequate financing and a good governance system (Watson et al. 2014).
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The current set of the European coastal Protected Areas is quite poor and highly fragmented and covers a reduced portion of the coastal areas, especially in the Mediterranean region (Gambino et al. 2008).
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On the contrary, we know that the concept of biodiversity is much more linked to the concept of “network”, instead of that of “island”.
- 20.
This key message was launched on the occasion of the III IUCN World Park Congress held in Durban (2003).
- 21.
‘Les Parcs disposent d’outils, de moyens. Ils développent des idées efficaces, originales, pertinentes, inventives. Il faudrait seulement que ces idées soient plus partagées, plus connues pour être réutilisées, recomposées, réinterprétées et donner lieu à de nouvelles actions’ (Kempft 2006).
- 22.
In this regard, the French Park is an interesting example, since it carries on coordinated actions with institutional bodies and privates situated outside the Park boundaries on topics such as the hydrographic resources management.
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Salizzoni, E. (2016). Conserving Biological and Cultural Diversity Along the Latin Arc: The Role of Protected Areas. In: Agnoletti, M., Emanueli, F. (eds) Biocultural Diversity in Europe. Environmental History, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26315-1_25
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