Cultural landscapes are regarded by many as being at the heart of European society's concern about the future of agriculture and land use. Finding a new balance between societal demands for high environmental quality and the pressures resulting from competition in a world market economy has become a key issue in policy-making. The German government at present promotes 18 model regions within the framework of the 'Regional Action - Rural Areas Shaping the Future' pilot program. The program has been implemented in order to gain best-practice models for securing the economic, ecological and social viability of rural areas and for strengthening rural-urban relationships, trial-testing a new integrated, bottom-up approach. Particularly important turns out to be the co-operation between farmers, conservation groups, small processing companies, gastronomy and businesses involved in rural tourism. Cultural landscapes are increasingly perceived as an asset in regional development. A characteristic feature of the programme is the heightened awareness of the specific regional potentials among regional actors which helps to discover new possibilities for a multifunctional agriculture and an amenity-led develop¬ment of rural areas. Emphasis in this contribution is on the networks involved in the implementation of the programme, the key features of the legislative and public policy frameworks, the expected effects of the programme on landscape changes, and finally, the question of the main-streaming of such programmes.