The practice of managing a landscape as one social-ecological system through a long-term, cross-sector partnership of the people and organizations that use and govern it.
Extended definition
Integrated landscape management (ILM) replaces separate sectoral plans for farming, conservation, water and settlement with one negotiated plan for the whole landscape. The work is carried by a landscape partnership and, in the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People formulation, follows five elements: building the partnership, building shared understanding, visioning and planning, taking action, and learning from impact. The horizon is a generation or more. The wiki uses the term as the field uses it. The full treatment, including how ILM relates to the BioConomy, is on the concept page Integrated Landscape Management.
Contrast with adjacent terms
- Landscape approach: the conceptual framework for reconciling competing land uses in one area. ILM is its operational form.
- Jurisdictional approach: ILM bounded by an administrative unit, such as a district or state, with government coordinating.
- Territorial development: integrated multi-sector development of a territory, entering through the region’s control over its own development.
- Bioregional development: development organized around the natural and cultural features of a bioregion. Scherr et al. (2026) treat it as closely related to ILM.
- BioHub: this wiki’s bioregional coordination body. It shares ILM’s convening function and adds the finance and contracting layer (see the concept page).
Related terms
Sources
- 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (2022). A Practical Guide to Integrated Landscape Management
- Scherr, S.J., et al. (2026). Collaborative Landscape and Bioregional Planning and Management
- Sayer, J., et al. (2013). Ten principles for a landscape approach
Provenance
Written 29 September 2026 alongside the concept page, from the 1000L Practical Guide glossary and Appendix A of Scherr et al. (2026). No editorial decisions beyond the standard voice conversions.