[posted on 20 December 2003]

2nd Meeting of the Workshop for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention 27-28 November 2003

Thymio Papayannis , director of Med-INA, participated in the 2nd Meeting of the Workshop for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention (27-28.11.2003) and posted the following report:

The European Landscape Convention (adopted in Florence on 20 October 2000) has been signed already by 28 states, of which 11 have ratified it; so it will enter into effect on 1 March 2004 . Its aims are to promote the protection, management and planning of European landscapes and to organise European co-operation on landscape issues. It applies to the entire territory of the signatories, covering natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas, and concerns both ordinary and degraded landscapes, as well as those considered outstanding. By treating with the natural and cultural values of landscapes, the Council of Europe seeks to protect the quality of life and well being of Europeans.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide inputs for the implementation of the Florence Convention, with reports to be presented to the third Conference of Contracting and Signatory States during mid-2004. Thus the workshops dealt with the following three major themes:

1. Integration of landscapes in international policies and programmes and transfrontier landscapes.

2. Landscapes and individual and social well being.

3. Spatial planning and landscape.

A wide range of papers were presented. The discussions were quite lively and pinpointed a number of key issues. Some of the main conclusions of the meeting, of pertinence to our interests, were the following:

• Landscapes, often resulting from the interplay between human activities and natural forces and processes, provide an appropriate framework for the integrated approach to cultural and natural values.

• This is further reinforced by the strong presence of space and time factors in landscapes.

• In the past, landscapes were formed or influenced by the actions of people living and working in them and evolved in time. (The terracing of sloping land for cultivation in the Mediterranean is a typical example.) At present, however, landscape ‘management’ is handled by ‘experts’, often for the benefit not of local populations, but of visitors. Traditional exploitation activities (especially agriculture and husbandry) modified and maintained landscapes, but as they are today disappearing, other means to approach landscapes must be found, and their feasibility evaluated. In modern times, the impact on landscapes of large scale linear interventions (such as highways and rapid railroad lines) was identified as a major concern.

• Dealing with landscapes requires a broad participation of many disciplines leading to a fully integrated approach, and cannot be monopolised by one of them (for example by physical planners or landscape architects).

• Although some promising work on landscapes has started in a number of European countries (such as in Slovenia , or through the work of Landscape Europe ), no generally accepted methodology and appropriate tools seem to exist. In particular the historical knowledge of landscapes is quite limited.

• The significant role of local authorities in landscape management was particularly stressed, although their understanding of the issues and competence to handle such complex issues is quite debatable.

• The quality assessment of landscapes was debated, as they are often evolving in a dynamic way, while value standards are also changing. Thus the romantic view of landscapes as depicted in the painting of the past few centuries might not be pertinent tomorrow.

• National specificities in landscape formation and handling, resulting from the historical development of each country, play an important role and must be taken into account.