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.
