Landscape approach dialogue and the transformative potential of landscape approaches

The Transformative Change for Biodiversity and Equity (TCforBE) project (2022 – 2026) is conducting transdisciplinary research to co-generate transformative change pathways in the context of telecoupled agrifood systems. By engaging diverse stakeholders and exploring plural perspectives within the EU and partner countries the project aims to strengthen stakeholder capacity on transformative change pathways leading to enhanced biodiversity and equity outcomes. Work package (WP) 5 concerns landscape scale engagement and research and WP6 supports inter-landscape, global and EU dialogues on transformative change pathways. Here we present a synthesis of a dialogue held on 19 March 2025 with mainly Dutch based academic, NGO, CSO, finance and government stakeholders’ on landscape approaches. Understanding the impacts and potential of landscape approaches means understanding and identifying factors in human society at both the individual and collective levels, including behavioural, social, cultural, economic, institutional, technical and technological dimensions, that may be leveraged to bring about transformative change at landscape scale, for different and multiple social, economic and environmental goals in the context of sustainable development. The main conclusions of the dialogue with academic, implementing and financing stakeholders of landscape approaches about their impacts and potential to bring about transformative change at landscape scale are whilst robust evidence is generally lacking on their impacts, landscape approaches when implemented taking account of current and historical setting, could support transformative change. Issues of dichotomies, systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, power, learning, monitoring and evaluation, and long time scales are seen as key determinants of how transformative or incremental change can be leveraged, This report will be followed by reports on other dialogues on different scales which contribute to consumer and producer landscape perspectives on transformative change of food systems towards biodiversity and equity.