According to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “[t]he term “cultural landscape” embraces a diversity of manifestations of the interaction between humankind and its natural environment.
Cultural landscapes often reflect specific techniques of sustainable land-use, considering the characteristics and limits of the natural environment they are established in, and a specific spiritual relation to nature. Protection of cultural landscapes can contribute to modern techniques of sustainable land-use and can maintain or enhance natural values in the landscape. The continued existence of traditional forms of land-use supports biological diversity in many regions of the world. The protection of traditional cultural landscapes is therefore helpful in maintaining biological diversity.” The terms landscape and cultural landscape are often used synonymously. Source: UNESCO World Heritage Council