Thriving Sustainable Economies through Integrated Landscape Strategies: A Vision for Public Policymakers

Nations today stand at a crossroads. From challenges to global economic growth, food and water insecurity and rising unemployment to deepening inequality, climate impacts, and environmental degradation, crises are mounting and converging, and trust in institutions is eroding. Yet the answers every country needs lie within its national borders, in the communities threatened most directly by these challenges.

The renowned 2021 Dasgupta Review demonstrated that an economy is embedded in its living ecosystems. Still, many countries are relying on the same game plan used in the past, with little effect. They launch economic development projects here or ecosystem-restoration plans there, in isolation. Their work is fragmented and fails to reflect the powerful interconnections and interdependencies across economic, environmental, and social dimensions that exist at the level of the local landscape, bioregion or territory. By embracing such interconnections, leaders can unleash the power to transform such places into engines of renewal that drive sustainable, long-term economic development.

Nurturing whole landscapes yields high returns: a thriving economy, human well-being, healthy nature and inspiration. Integrated landscape strategies are being promoted globally by United Nations agencies and environmental conventions to advance sustainable economic growth, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to climate action. Countries across the globe, from Costa Rica to the United Kingdom, are pioneering national initiatives to address the ongoing polycrisis at its roots. Led at the highest levels of government, they provide institutional support for local partnerships, representing all sectors and groups, to develop integrated landscape strategies and action plans for sustainable development.

Policymakers can advance community-led, integrated landscape management (ILM) as a key solution to the polycrisis and economic revival. The “how” of this approach has emerged from decades of field experience (UNCCD, UNFAO). Locally-led ILM can unlock community energy and systemic solutions. Governments, in turn, can strategically deploy existing public budgets towards convergence on the ground, supporting local action plans directly. Aligning public investments can make funds work harder while rebuilding community trust. Government departments and sectors can work in synergy to support long-term, local strategies, and to engage all groups in society to participate in pursuing these goals. This public investment will attract aligned private and philanthropic capital to amplify local solutions to the polycrisis. Public policies and budgets can thus serve as a foundation for comprehensive, unified solutions.

A policy framework for advancing ILM has three elements at its heart (see figure below):

Designate lead responsibility for aligning national landscape policy and programs, and engaging with landscape partnerships;
Ensure national policies, programs and budgets support the holistic action and investment plans generated by landscape partnerships; and
Mobilize whole-of-society support for landscape strategies, through markets and finance, digital infrastructure, education, and incentives for collaboration.

ILM promises to be one of the most efficient and effective ways to address the polycrisis. This paper aims to inspire policymakers working at all levels of government to join hands with local actors on the front line of the polycrisis to pursue this vision. Leaders have the power to ensure all their nation’s landscapes and the economy thrive. Now is the time for concerted action to support landscape solutions.