Linking between different scales of space and time to preserve the landscape: Artense

Abstract

In the Artense (France's Massif Central), there is a sustainable development plan and a landscape charter, which together are intended to preserve the landscape while ensuring sustainable development. On the basis of a description of the landscape, taken together with the economic, social and ecological factors that produced it, an extensive campaign was undertaken to motivate local councillors and inhabitants, as well as local authorities and organisations that influenced, directly or indirectly, the development of the landscape, to set up a global action programme with grants, regulations and contracts.... These 2 examples set out the framework of what could be a balanced landscape approach, encouraging the development of a social policy balancing socio-economic issues against the characteristics and constraints specific to each environment. They show the need for a balance between various scales of space and time: local (communes or groups of communes) where specific programmes are planned over the medium-term (a few years), regional and national to ensure that the initiatives are compatible with each other, to encourage such initiatives and check that these actions comply with a global policy that must be clear and viable in the long-term, micro-local: (plots of land, local environments) because the actions resulting from these projects are carried out on this scale and in the very short-term (year or even season).