The Visual Landscape is a subproject of the Monitoring the Finnish Agri-Environmental Programme (MYTVAS). The basic material was photographed in ten different areas across Finland in summer 1996. A selection of the panorama photos was edited taking into account the practices of the Finnish Agri-Environmental Programme (FAEP) and societal change factors. The editing was done at the University of Joensuu, which also evaluated the photos on the basis of an interview survey. The interviewees approved of the effects of the FAEP measures on the landscape. They found the maintained buffer strips more pleasing than those not taken care of and considered that they improved the quality of watercourses. The opinions of farmers on the second and third most important effects on the landscape, i.e., an increase in weeds and a decrease in cultivated land, differed clearly from those of the other interviewees. According to the survey the most beautiful photo was the one of a rural landscape, which included digitally edited buffer zone with watercourses and distinctive relative differences in altitude in the background. Most interviewees did not know that landscape maintenance and the promotion of biodiversity were included in the General Agricultural Environment Protection Scheme (GAEPS): the water protection measures of the Supplementary Protection Scheme (SPS) were, however believed to be included in the scheme. The landscape digitally edited to accord with the visions societal change was, on the whole, considered less beautiful. According to the analysis of the survey, of forestation and a failure to look after fields are the most important factors changing landscapes in Finland.