Landscape has become widely accepted as a concept for embracing the natural sphere as well as human society. Landscape management has, however, a history of being sector-struck, with nature conservation and cultural heritage values often ruled by different logics. This means some complications in evaluating landscapes and deciding what desired landscape to aim for in planning and management. Moreover, there is a manifold of perceptions of the same piece of landscape, and equally manifold demands, as acknowledged by the European Landscape Convention. Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) is a recent concept, launched by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as an inclusive, and pluralistic way of understanding what people derive from their relationships with the rest of nature. Being a conceptual evolution from ‘ecosystem services’, NCP recognizes culture as a lens through which humans relate to the physical environment, and could, hence, be used for connecting ecological qualities and cultural values.
Taking some European protected areas and Biosphere reserves as examples, the presentation will show that negotiations and the weighing of different values are vital elements in integrated landscape management. The need for reconsidering the use of concepts with certain connotations for human – landscape relations, such as ‘local people’ and ‘traditional’ will be highlighted.

Marie Stenseke is professor in Human Geography, deputy dean at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg and director of the Interdisciplinary Academy at Swedish Agricultural University. Her research concerns biodiversity, nature conservation and landscape management from a social science perspective. Marie Stenseke is a fellow of The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry and has served as co-chair of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel of Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 2015-2022. She has also been involved in a large number of national and international research projects and programs, and engage with knowledge communication through various special commissions, eg. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s Council for Biodiversity and Ecosystem services, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences national committee for global environmental change, the board for the Foundation Future Earth Sweden, the board of The Permanent European Conference on the Study of the Rural Landscape (PECSRL),