The hypothesis that
the landscape of Britain has arisen largely from Nature's
responses to human activity would scarcely be seriously questioned. It would
appear, therefore, that the history of human land use, management and exploitation,
and the economic factors governing them, forms a coherent framework within which
to describe the development of the range of habitats which comprise the landscape;
for arriving at conclusions about the parts currently played by biotic and
anthropogenic factors in the dynamics of habitats; for focusing the closest attention
on the economic structure of agricultural and other practices from which such
factors arise; and for arriving at conclusions about the history, present status and
future of individual species of our fauna and flora. Habitats are usually in the process
of change, even though such changes may be exceedingly slow and not readily
demonstrable.
The European Landscape
Convention defines landscape as 'an area, as perceived
by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or
human factors'.
The concept of 'action
and interaction, by people in the past' emphasises the
importance of cultural and historic landscape, and its changes. The definition also
emphasises the cultural aspect of landscape, that is to say, its material remains
created over a long period by human activity. More than 'environment', landscape
exists only after people have imagined it. These imaginative structures unify land and
its peoples in powerful ways. They are the essence of conservation because the
whole notional structure is hooked onto the biophysical elements of scenery that are
the visual triggers to relive the past. Where scenic features have been lost, old
pictures and even maps provide virtual elements of an imagined landscape. All this,
augmented by words and pictures of those who meditate upon it make a dynamic
ideational scaffold.
People often start
to value something when it is threatened. The countryside has
long been highly valued, but rural conservation policy has tended to focus on its
ecological attributes. Its historic dimension, for example field patterns, is neither well
understood nor, as a result, adequately managed. Heritage conservationists have
until recently been strongly focused on sites and monuments, treating landscape as
the background rather than significant in itself. However, in its own right, any area
where an historic landscape can be defined provides the most fundamental, diverse
and readily accessible part of the cultural heritage. It is the human habitat affecting
everyone, carrying stories about how it has been extensively adapted over thousands
of years.
It is therefore important
to explore ways of defining local cultural landscapes.
