Towards an integrated approach for landscape management in the Municipality of Prespes

Towards an integrated approach for landscape management in the Municipality of Prespes

Our research on the landscapes of Prespa, in collaboration with the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anrthropos (MedINA), is coming to an end. Our report Landscape Study of the Municipality of Prespa which is part of the project “Landscape Public Participation Tools – LPPT” presents an approach on landscape management of Prespa’s landscapes integrating public participation procedures.

The research lasted for 2 years and included the following steps:

1. We recognized the typology and characteristics of the landscapes of Prespa, through systematic analysis following the examples of the landscape catalogues of Catalunya and the British LCA method. The analysis resulted in the recognition of 8 basic and 34 special landscape types based on common characteristics, and the identification of 12 landscape areas (functional – geographical units).

2. A SWOT analysis was performed at the participatory workshop “The future of Prespa’s landscape” held at Laimos village on April 2022, revealing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that Prespa’s landscapes face. The dynamics of change in the landscape and the driving forces have been previously recorded at another participatory workshop “Prespa’s landscape over the years” on July 2021.

3. We linked the values that residents and visitors assign to the landscapes of Prespa, recorded through interviews, with the institutionally recognized environmental, cultural, or other values. This combination was used to assess the distribution of landscape values for each landscape area and to assign values for each landscape type.

4. Finally, we gathered existing proposals on landscape management from reference studies and official documents, along with those submitted by locals during April’s “Future of Prespa’ s landscape” workshop and those recorded through an online survey designed for this purpose.

Based on this data 6 general quality objectives for Prespa’s landscapes were defined, providing guidelines for all landscape areas. These general objectives were further specified for each of the 8 basic landscape types.

Finally, these quality objectives led to the formulation of sectoral guidelines (for agricultural management, forest management, cultural heritage management, environmental management, etc) detailed for each of the 12 landscape areas. These results were communicated by the Society for the Protection of Prespa to local and regional stakeholders as well as ministerial representatives.

The study which you can find here includes the methodology, steps and data which we used to reach our final proposals on how we envisage the landscape of Prespa in the future. We hope that citizens and other stakeholders will find our research and conclusions useful.