Financing and Business Models of Landscapes

The Landscape Approach seeks to recognise the economic factors that influence land use and reconcile these with land rights, community requirements and conservation in a way that is beneficial to all and, in the case of private enterprise, amenable to investment and conducive of growth.  The overlap is often encapsulated in the thesis of sustainability, which forsees that exploitative, unregulated land use and resource extraction will eventually destroy the capacity of the landscape to support these activities and the livelihoods that depend on them.  For example, in Ethiopia, the forestry sector is a vital job-producing part of the economy in a country with chronic underemployment.  However, the government has aimed to combine the long-term future of the industry with a commitment to reforestation and afforestation; these conservtion aims are treated as worthy aims in themselves, but also safeguard the capacity of forests to provide lumber into the future (Jobs might grow on trees in Ethiopia).  Mutually beneficial strategies have paved the way for a wider movement of divestment from unsustainable resource extraction.  (Q&A: Divestment from fossil fuels points to shift towards sustainable finance)