What are the Nordic and Baltic cultural landscapes and how are they changing because of effects of nature and man's influence? Experts gathered for a two-day meeting in Tallinn to discuss this theme. Cultural landscapes were defined as consisting of three aspects: 1) the physical landscape, (i.e. landform and vegetation), 2) landscape perception (i.e. human perception of the landscape) and 3) economic value and management. For each of these, changes in the landscape were discussed and projects from the Nordic and Baltic countries were presented. The need for monitoring and the monitoring process were also discussed. It became clear through comparing experiences that the monitoring process, as well as the reporting of data, is a complex process. The goals of monitoring projects have to be clearly defined, the data on the existing situation have to be comparable, indicators of change have to be determined and defined, and results have to be reported objectively and clearly. The difficult questions are: What change is good? What is bad?