While PLENUM, as a relatively new instrument, may seem to provide a paradox, i.e. conservation via use, it corresponds to other global initiatives (e.g. Takeuchi 2010) that seek to maintain and re-establish biological and cultural diversity in landscapes by taking a social–ecologicalsystems approach (e.g. Bohnet and Smith 2007; Palomo et al. 2014). For example, the Satoyama Initiative in Japan aims to rebuild a healthy relationship between people and nature through new and shared management systems— ‘new’ commons for the Satoyama landscapes (Takeuchi 2010; Yokohari and Bolthouse 2011). Similar to the Satoyama Initiative, PLENUM is looking for new ways and partners to utilise the cultural landscapes in the PLENUM project regions and sees the redevelopment of ‘working cultural landscapes as vital to their evolution (Landesanstalt fu¨r Umwelt, Messungen und Naturschutz Baden- Wu¨rttemberg 2014).