Two Approaches for Understanding Land-Use Conflict to Improve Rural Planning and Management

Land-use conflicts reveal the contemporary evolution of rural areas. They illustrate the rising popularity of the countryside among an urbanized population, which might be in conflict with traditional ideas of rural land uses and living. Because public decision makers have difficulty recognizing the diversity of societal demands and users of rural and periurban areas have difficulty vocalizing their preferences, participative approaches have become an important planning strategy. Ideally, they go together with conflict analysis about causes, effects, and preferences and thus supplement classical formal planning instruments. In this article, we present two examples of land-use conflicts occurring in rural settings: conflicts related to the residential environment and to outdoor recreation. Methods for distinct conflict analysis are presented and strategies for land-use planning and management are described. Two case studies, one collective action approach from Puy-de-Dome, France, and one participative planning approach from the Black Forest, Germany, underline the different forms of litigation used by stakeholders to change land-use planning and management, empirically. Finally, the need for new modes of governance and institutional arrangements for collaborative regional and local landscape planning is highlighted and suggestions for their application are made.