PLANNING FOR PROTECTED AREAS: A MODEL OF PROTECTION FOR THE LANDSCAPE. Planning for protected areas, especially for parks which are areas of nature conservancy, has specific features due to the fact that the areas in question, though very different among themselves, always carry some form of official protection owing to the special value of their natural resources, ecosystems and landscapes. It is precisely this value, making them potential testing laboratories for developing both appropriate relationships between man and the natural world and different forms of sustainable development, that confers a growing interest on the planning associated with them, especially in Europe. This interest has recently been increased by some important factors, such as the rapid spread of protected areas even within mainly urbanized landscapes, the ever more frequent recourse to planning as a tool for managing these areas, and the problems, conflicts and tensions which arise from this, both within these areas and close by, and take on a paradigmatic character with regard to a wider territory. Such circumstances must therefore be taken into account in order to understand the importance that this form of planning is taking on in the wider context of management of a territory. Key-words: planning, landscape, protected areas.