Two GIZ videos explain landscape approaches and rural urban linkages.
Photo: ©GIZ/Screenshot

Two GIZ videos explain landscape approaches and rural urban linkages

The ‘Sustainable rural development’ sector project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has brought out two new videos with insights on two important issues in rural development: landscape approaches and rural urban linkages.

Landscapes are essential! They provide important ecosystem services which are the basis of all life, such as drinking water, clean air, food, energy sources, building materials and recreational opportunities, as well as carbon sinks and climate regulation.

Landscape approaches for sustainable rural development


Landscapes are complex socio-ecological systems, influenced by a range of factors. A new video by GIZ’s sector project ‘Sustainable rural development’ shows the consequences of non-sustainable landscape management. How resources are used affects people, biodiversity and the global climate. Pressure on landscapes is growing faster than ever, creating a vicious circle ranging from expansion of land used for fields, through extreme impacts of climate change to a plunge in productivity.

The GIZ video outlines a concept which takes an integrated view of people, the environment, industry, and factors such as population growth and climate change. It shows approaches and measures which can help break this vicious circle and make people and nature more resilient. Concrete measures are presented which contribute to achieving the various sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030.

Rural urban linkages


Rural and urban areas benefit each other if they are properly linked. They are already interconnected by flows of people, goods, money, information and even waste. Nevertheless, rural and urban areas are usually viewed separately, even though they are affected by the same challenges, such as globalisation, climate change, population growth and migration.

What would happen if we thought about them together?


The GIZ video shows four possible approaches:

  • integrated spatial planning
  • sustainable food systems which connect rural food producers and urban consumers
  • the potential of small and medium-sized towns which provide decentralised functions for rural and urban dwellers
  • levelling out the differences between rural and urban communities by improving access to and responsible use of the digital infrastructure.

By considering rural and urban areas jointly, it is possible to address and achieve multiple SDGs simultaneously, thereby driving sustainable development over an entire region.

(giz/wi)

Further information:

“How landscape approaches can contribute to finding solutions for a sustainably managed landscape”

English video                                French video

“Thinking rural and urban areas together contribute to achieve several SDGs” 

English video                                 French video

Further information on landscape approaches and rural urban linkages is available at the sector project ‘Sustainable rural development’

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