Evidence Synthesis towards a Holistic Landscape Decision Framework: Insight from the Landscape Decisions Programme

Abstract

The development of a decision framework for landscape governance and management has become one of the prioritised policy instruments for actualising policy objectives related to agri-food systems, biodiversity conservation, nature restoration, environmental management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and the transition to renewable energy supplies. However, the landscape lens in policy making is challenging because of the diverse landscape archetypes, environmental problems, and diverging policy targets that it must address. This highlights the importance of having a robust, evidence-based landscape decision framework. To address this issue, this study undertook a transdisciplinary synthesis of research outputs from the Landscape Decisions Programme (LDP). This study compiles and synthesises outputs from the LDP projects in the context of the relevant literature to develop an understanding of the relationships among the emerging evidence with respect to decision making for sustainable and multifunctional landscapes. The synthesis identified six themes that define the drivers of landscape decisions, and four themes that define the dominant methodological approaches used to generate evidence for landscape decisions. The emergent themes from the synthesis were distilled into five principles that can be used as a basis for the development of a holistic landscape decision framework.