Putting the Park-Landscape Alliance to the Test: Protected Landscapes as a Proving Ground

Today, there is widespread hope that it will be possible to achieve an alliance between the policies developed inside protected natural areas and landscape policies, in that such an alliance is considered to be beneficial for the conservation of both nature and the landscape. One place that may have the right qualities to host this alliance is the Protected Landscapes (category V protected areas, according to the IUCN classification system), where natural and cultural values are closely connected. This paper uses three Protected Landscapes along the Spanish, French, and Italian coasts in its case studies to verify the methods used to implement policies for the landscape. A rather varied picture emerges, in which more and less positive signs of the “Park-landscape” alliance are identified, and these signs in turn indicate some possible paths to follow to promote this link.