Landscape has become a focus point of interest in the last 15 years. This is also mirrored in international conventions. So was landscape introduced as specific catagory into the world heritage conevtions of UNESCO. The EU Council of Ministers has drafted principles and guidelines on spatial development, which stress the great importance of landcape for identity and social well being and the need for a good landscape management for all types of landscapes, including urban landscapes and degraded landsapes. Last but not least the Council of Europe has formulated the European Landscape Convention, which sets great value on the participation of the civil society in developing and managing the landscape. The cultural aspects of landscape have been neglected in many countries for a long time, defining landscape as a pure feature of nature. But more and more the cultural aspects of landscape, including the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, have become a focus of research and understanding. Landscape, and especially the cultural heritage, have become important factors for identity building. In all aspects of research, communication and management civil society can play an important role and people can engage themselves. This can be done through prospection projects, archaeological excavations, heritage management programmes, the construction of cultural paths and many other activities. Such projects help to inform people about their own landscape at their own doorsteps and make them wardens for a good landscape management and heritage protection. The lecture shall show the potential of (cultural) landscape as a place for civil society to engage and give examples of how a positive engagement of people for their landscape can be achieved.