Relational Thinking for Landscape Management and Conservation: can we really embrace a human/nature continuity?

Élie Pédarros , Juan Fernandez-Manjarres

It is increasingly recognized that the conservation of natural and degraded landscapes requires rethinking our relationships with nature by considering social-ecological complexity. Currently, managers are faced with a wealth of knowledge in landscape ecology, restoration ecology and related fields, that are all mobilized to solve management problems. However, many conceptual propositions fall inadvertently in the same human/nature divide that they try to surpass if based only on a systemic approach. In this article, we analyse the varying degrees to which restoration, reconciliation and reclamation ecologies have been influenced by relational thinking bringing together the cultural, social and ecological spheres. The greatest challenge remains to understand human-nature relationships as continuous, facilitating the integration of diversity of relationships, values and worldviews that require necessarily larger research and management teams, something not always possible to fund.