New approaches to landscape community development : governance and tools, some experiences in Brittany

This paper will explore the challenges and short-comings of top-down approaches to the achievement of sustainable development, and the need for more people-centred approaches in the future. Current landscape policies enable the participation of communities in decisions and actions regarding their future and the future of the landscapes with which they are associated. Some can come from elected local bodies promoting participative processes, like for example on the municipality of Lanvallay; some can be initiated by local citizen groups setting up local action for SD, landscape and well-being, like for example on the municipality of Léhon, others can come from local NGO, like for example ‘les fermiers du Pays d’Evran’. We will try to present and analyze those 3 types of governance for local empowerment based on 3 examples from the Rance Valley region, in Brittany.
Empowerment also depends on the way we share knowledge on landscape changes and uses. In that sense, landscape photographic observatories (LPO) can help local communities to share views and converge on a common decision for landscape future. Depending on the local empowerment frame of governance, we propose to develop the ways LPO could be use to promote landscape community development.