Landcare - a landscape approach at scale

Landcare is an approach based on the notion of caring for your landscape as a community. The model is based on the values of community empowerment and collective action to develop and apply innovative solutions to natural resource management challenges, networking farmers with the broader community and promoting sustainable land management practices. The Landcare model, which has often been identified as ‘bottom-up’ rather than the conventional programme design approach of ‘top-down’, is founded on four basic cornerstones: community driven, appropriate technologies and land management practices, partnership development and institution building. These foundations are based on farmers’ interest in gaining and sharing knowledge about practices that can improve income generation whilst conserving and protecting natural resources. This approach is underpinned by the acknowledgement that land management issues do not exclusively impact or occur at the farm scale, but also ramify into the surrounding landscape