Perspectives From Outside the EU: The Influence of Legal and Planning Frameworks on Landscape Planning

The legal and governance context for landscape planning in countries outside the EU can differ greatly from their EU counterparts. We propose a framework for characterizing that context in order to enable readers from non-EU countries to relate their planning systems to the European baseline for landscape planning. Methodologies for the assessment of ES in landscape planning, such as presented in this book, can be applied in principle in most countries. However, their planning context often will be very different. Legal, political, economic, demographic, cultural and physical-environmental conditions define whether comprehensive environmental planning is possible at all, or whether incremental actions are the only feasible strategy. The context also influences the role of citizen participation and different spatial or political tiers at which particular planning tasks take place. The methodologies applied in any kind of landscape planning must also be adapted to the quality and availability of data, and particularly to the evaluation standards and roles of citizen preferences in different legal and political systems. We present two particular examples from advanced economy countries – Oregon in the USA and Japan. These examples illustrate the different governance contexts for environmental planning in the selected jurisdictions and their possible consequences for managing ecosystem services.