A framework for the future: green networks with multiple uses in and around towns and cities (ENRR256)

The past few years have seen a lot of changes. Some of these affect how we do approach – and how we should approach – environmental issues. The Earth Summit of 1992 by following the Bruntland Commission [World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987] in insisting on sustainability, signalled the need to turn away from economically-led planning and towards environmentally-led planning where landscape function is as important, or more so, than landscape form. Part of the outcome of The Earth Summit has been the Biodiversity Convention, which sets global targets. From these come the Local Biodiversity Action Plans which are the building blocks for global action.