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This study explored the public perceptions of mobile telecommunications development - new landscape elements installed to deliver new technology - in a protected area. It examined: (1) the perceived landscape impacts of such development; (2) the importance attached to the socio-economic value of mobile telecommunications; and (3) the factors underlying the perceived landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development. A postal questionnaire survey was conducted in the Peak District National Park, England with 420 respondents drawn from National Park residents and visitors, urban dwellers and members of environmental organisations. The study suggests that: (1) there was a prevailing antipathy towards the landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development in the National Park; (2) apart from emergency uses, the other socio-economic benefits of mobile telecommunications technology were thought to be relatively unimportant in the National Park; and (3) rather than socio-demographic characteristics, it was respondents' understandings of protected areas' needs for the technology and potential health risks that had significant effects on the perceived landscape impacts. Overall, this study suggests that the significance of National Park landscapes is respected by the public, even when setalongside the convenience of modern technology, which has substantial implications for landscape planning and management in protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maintenance of valued landscapes often requires the active collaboration of local communities in their planning, management and sustainable development. This paper examines a variety of situations in which local stakeholders have actively participated in the protection and maintenance of 'cultural' landscapes. It reviews and interprets evidence on the ways in which central and local governments, non-governmental organizations, interest groups and the wider public can collaborate in planning and managing cultural landscapes. Particular attention is given to: the role of stakeholders, participation by communities-of-interest and communities-of-place; the management of specific landscape features; and policy and funding frameworks. It is concluded that community-based initiatives are unlikely to substitute for formal management of extensive protected areas, but that participatory approaches can be effective in more targeted situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Approaches to biodiversity and catchment planning increasingly recognize the importance of the `wider countryside` rather than the more site-specific focus of traditional environmental management programmes. Biodiversity depends on the viability of ecosystems across the whole countryside, and not only in designated reserves; equally, the quantity and quality of inland waters reflect overall conditions within river catchments, as well as the hydrological conditions of specific river channels. However, planning of these wider areas involves partnerships and agreements between a range of actors, which generally must be negotiated on a consensual basis and are vulnerable to subsequent dissent. This paper examines the actor-networks which have arisen in some innovative examples of `wider countryside` planning and assesses their durability and contribution to the attainment of environmental objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the Local Agenda 21 to promote sustainable development at the municipal level in Great Britain. Progress on strategy production and adoption; Case studies; Nature of claims made in relation to sustainability networks; Role of local government.

Discusses certain aspects of systematic environmental reporting and planning in Canada. Responses to monitoring and management of environmental quality resulting from the 1992 Earth Summit; Nature of environmental reporting; Process of environmental reporting; Reflections on the state of the environment (SoE) reporting process.