The Lifescape Challenge - Why we do it
Our landscape is changing. The distribution of wildlife and the texture of the landscape are the product of complex interactions. The basic physical qualities of rock, soil, and climate have set the scene, but the detail has been shaped through millennia of human activity, past and present land use and management, and its associated impacts; not least by the age-old practice of farming. So when you next look out over the countryside and marvel at its natural beauty you have to remember - it is far from natural. To a large extent it is cultured and man-made.
Our farming practices have changed over time but, since the mid 20th century, there has been a sharp acceleration of this trend across Europe. Under suitable circumstances the patchwork landscape of small-scale, traditional farming has been replaced by intensive farming and monocultures. Food production has been required - and very successfully - to industrialize and become far more efficient in order to feed a growing urban population. Concentration and vertical integration are major trends in farming practices today, mirrored by the concentration within the processing, shipping, and retail sectors.
As the costs of land and production have gone up, the number of farms and farmers, and the area devoted to agriculture have decreased. Farmers working under less favourable circumstances are giving up and are drawn towards new opportunities for jobs provided by towns and cities. Within the time span of one or two generations we have become footloose and have moved on in the world of business, service providers, and entertainment. And while the ever accelerating dynamics of urban life is focussed on vibrant metropolitan areas in North Western Europe, driving the costs of land further upwards, our European continent is also confronted with land abandonment and depopulation in marginal and isolated parts.
The consequences may be quite substantial for our landscapes, the face of Europe. For who will manage the European countryside in ten year’s time when most farmers have gone out of business? With an estimated 60 or 70 percent of birds and plant species depending on traditional farming activities for their continued survival, Europe has more to lose than just a pretty face. And what will be the economic and social effects of this development? Will we be able to strike a sustainable balance in the near future?
Presently, there is a gap, both physical and metaphysical, between ecology and economy, between urban life and rural entrepreneurs. And it is getting bigger, rather than smaller. There is no turning back to the ‘pastoral idyll’ of the 18th century poets and romantics. Whilst the rural landscapes of those times were certainly attractive and more diverse, they were also the source of poverty and deprivation. We need to step forward.
Urbanization - the increase in the urban share of the total population - is inevitable and is now a familiar image of the greater proportion of North Western Europe. The United Nations expect that the world will reach an invisible milestone in 2008. For the first time in history, more than half the human population will be living in urban areas, with an unprecedented scale of growth in the developing world. The current concentration of poverty, slums, and social disruption in cities around the world and the environmental damage done by modern civilization does paint a threatening picture of urban life.
But this urban life also represents our best hope of escape. Experts and policymakers increasingly recognize the potential value of cities and their surroundings to longterm sustainability and managing ecosystem services. Our challenge in North West Europe, therefore, is about recreating attractive landscapes that are rich in wildlife, that host ‘living’ communities, which are based on vibrant local economies and that reconnect our rural and urban society.
