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| THE OBSERVER
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Emilio Iranzo
Chair for Citizen Engagement and Valencian Landscapes
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In 2004, the Valencian Community acceded to the European Landscape Convention (ELC, Florence, 2000). Accession to the ELC signified a major commitment, namely incorporating its principles into the legal and administrative framework of the Valencian Community, and marked a watershed in the way we manage our land. [...]
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| MOSAIC
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| Upcoming course: Urban Landscape and Local Perspective. Intermediate Landscape Valorisation and Intervention |
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Landscape policies and tools offer an alternative way of looking at and managing urban landscapes in order to improve urban quality, citizen well-being, and local promotion and revitalisation. Organised jointly with Barcelona Provincial Council and set to take place over six sessions between May and June, the course aims to explore new forms of urban landscape management, planning and treatment in Barcelona province through the lens of local cases, tools and methodologies. The course is aimed at government and elected officials in the province of Barcelona.[+]
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| New seminar: Creative Landscapes. The art and reinvention of places |
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Certain artistic expressions today have become highly suggestive ways of interpreting different landscape realities, while incorporating emotional and creative elements. Some of them even aid the social construction of discourses and territorial models that are far removed from official or hegemonic ones. Co-organised by the Landscape Observatory and Pompeu Fabra University and taking place online on 16 and 17 June, the seminar will explore some of these creative initiatives in Catalonia and Europe. The programme will be made public shortly.
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| Presentation of the summary document and conclusions of the Landscape/kW seminar |
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The summary document of the 2019 seminar will be presented online on 22 April at 6 pm. The event is organised by the Pirineus.watt association, the Institute for the Development and Promotion of the High Pyrenees and Aran (IDAPA) and the Landscape Observatory. It will includes a talk by geographer and photographer Rafael López Monné on the characteristics, values and potential of the hydroelectric landscape, followed by a discussion and debate. The full digital document is available here.
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| Roads of landscape interest in Tarragona counties |
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The Landscape Observatory, the Environment, Public Health, Municipal Engineering and Territory Department, and the Territory Assistance Department – Roads of Tarragona Provincial Council worked together throughout 2020 to identify 14 roads of landscape interest (from the Tarragona Provincial Council road network). Their results are laid out in the document "Roads of landscape interest in Tarragona counties. The roads of Tarragona Provincial Council as an active generator of leisure experiences and creator of heritage value at the service of culture and local development".
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| Andorran parishes are once again the protagonists in the construction of Andorra's National Landscape Strategy |
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The Landscape Observatory is advising the Government of Andorra's Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Sustainability on its update of the National Landscape Strategy of Andorra (ENPA). The collaboration will give rise to the ENPA map, which will include landscape quality objectives and the landscape management and planning actions required to achieve them. Much of the participatory process was carried out in 2020, engaging the Government of Andorra, the country's seven parishes, Andorra-based entities and the public at large. This spring, the parishes are once again driving the strategy-building process, with a mapping exercise that reflects their co-responsibility and commitment to the ENPA.
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| The Landscape Observatory of the Swedish region of Västra Götaland |
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Sweden is now running its first Landscape Observatory. Region Västra Götaland is responsible for the operation of the Landscape Observatory Västra Götaland, a pilot project where there are high hopes for a continuation of its relevant tasks after the first 2.5 years. This is a collaboration between Region Västra Götaland, the County Administrative Board, the University of Gothenburg and Mariestad Municipality. The Observatory stands out for its work with the local communities of the Region in the knowledge and management of its landscape heritage, and for its landscape approaches in European projects.
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| Lausanne Declaration 'Landscape integration in sectorial policies' |
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The Lausanne Declaration “Landscape integration in sectorial policies”, promoted by the Council of Europe, was symbolically adopted on 20 October 2020, date of the Celebration of the 20th anniversary of the European Landscape Convention and the 4th International Landscape Day of the Council of Europe. According to the Declaration, the Parties to the European Landscape Convention, and other States, are urged to systematically integrate the landscape dimension into policies which may have a direct or indirect impact on the quality of the landscape, in accordance with the provisions of the ELC; To ensure that the policies of spatial and town planning, policies concerning infrastructure, water management, energy, the economy and employment, as well as environmental, agricultural, social, health, cultural and tourism policies, take into consideration the values and functions of the landscape; And to consider that integration concerns both the administrative bodies and departments on the same level (horizontal integration) and those belonging to different levels (vertical integration).
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| The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, invited to the Global Festival 'The Nature of Cities' |
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The global virtual festival The Nature of Cities (TNOC) was 22-26 February 2021, and attracted 2200 participants from 72 countries. The TNOC festival covered 5 days with programming 18 plenaries and 180 seed sessions and field trips across all regional time zones. The aim was to connect local place and ideas on a global scale to bring many voices together for imagining our cities for the future. The director of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia was invited to participate in a plenary session to debate about landscape and democracy. He was also invited to contribute in a seed session about the future Latin-American Landscape Convention based on the European experience.
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| First Landscape Catalog of Chile |
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The Chilean entity Corporación Patrimonio y Paisaje has presented this April the first Landscape Catalog of Chile, which is also one of the first experiences of landscape catalogs in Latin America. It is promoted by the public-private initiative Ruta Lagos y Volcanes. The first Catalog is conceived as a reference to advance in the study and development of the concept of landscape in Chile, which contemplates its integral nature (natural, cultural and perceptive), assumed both by the citizens and by the administrations and the private sectors, and thought above all like a new and innovative tool of management and territorial planning of the south of Chile that contributes to the new challenges of the regional and local development. The Landscape Observatory was invited to the launch of the new Catalog to explain the applications of this instrument.
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| Exhibition in Olot: Every stone makes a wall |
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The exhibition, which opened on 20 March, can be visited in Room 15 of the Garrotxa Regional Museum in Olot's Hospici building until 2 May 2021. Following UNESCO's recognition of the dry stone technique as intangible cultural heritage in November 2018, the Association for Dry Stone and Traditional Architecture and the Government of Catalonia's Ministry of Culture curated this exhibition in 2019 to draw attention to the dry stone buildings and techniques in our country. The exhibition aims to provide a broad overview of this legacy, emphasising the variety of building types, the diversity of landscapes they create and the rich network of associations that ensure their preservation.[+]
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| Les Capçaleres del Ter i del Freser Natural Park scientific committee holds first formal meeting |
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The scientific committee of Les Capçaleres del Ter i del Freser Natural Park held its first meeting on 24 February. The Landscape Observatory was in attendance alongside its fellow members, which are several Catalan universities (UdG, UAB, UB and UVic), the Centre d'Estudis Comarcals del Ripollès (Ripollès County Studies Centre), the Institució Catalana d'Història Natural (Catalan Institution of Natural History), and two French institutions that manage the area bordering the Natural Park, Els Pirineus Catalans Regional Natural Park and the Federació de Reserves Naturals Catalanes (Federation of Catalan Nature Reserves). The scientific committee's mission is to advise the other bodies of the park (particularly the management body) on matters of research, planning and the assessment of the area's heritage values, with a view to ensuring the production of quality scientific research, proposing studies, seeking synergies, and assessing plans and programmes that may be implemented in the park.
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| Observatory website and image gallery graced by shots by new photographer |
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Eva Marín is the latest photographer to have her work featured on the homepage of the Landscape Observatory website. This also means that her work will be included in the Observatory's image gallery. The artist's photographs emphasise aspects that are overlooked in traditional territorial representation. Born in the middle of the Maresme, one of the areas of Barcelona's periphery suffering the most savage urban transformation during the second half of the 20th century, she proposes a territorial immersion in what she calls "the invisible geography of the periphery”.
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| Promotion of local product consumption in La Conca de Barberà, key for the management of the landscape |
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La Conca de Barberà is looking to raise awareness of the importance of choosing local products and also shine a light on the farmers and tradespeople who produce them. During the pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that farmers are a key part of society, providing quality local agricultural products while also having an undisputed impact on landscape management. With this aim in mind, La Conca de Barberà County Council and agroecological cooperative L'Arista put together a catalogue of agriculture and food crafts of La Conca de Barberà a few months ago. A workshop entitled "Networking between producers and restaurateurs of La Conca de Barberà" was also organised to raise the profile of local products within the tourism sector. These initiatives are some of the actions promoted as part of the La Conca de Barberà Landscape Charter.
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| Coordinadora Garrigues conference on wind power and landscape charters |
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On 16 March, the Coordinadora Garrigues per una eòlica i solar sostenibles (Garrigues Coordinator for sustainable wind and solar power) organised a talk entitled "The Landscape Charter. A supra-municipal tool for managing renewable energies". The Landscape Observatory took part in the event, where experiences of the landscape charters of El Priorat, El Garraf and La Conca de Barberà were also shared. A landscape charter is a voluntary tool that implies debate and agreement between a territory's stakeholders on the desired landscape model. A well-defined territorial model is a highly useful tool at a time, such as the present, when there is interest in locating projects in the territory with high landscape impact, such as renewable energy installations.
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| DIGITAL LANDSCAPE |
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| Projecte Simbiosi |
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The Naturalist and Ecologist Association of the Garrotxa is carrying out this project with the help of Hospital d'Olot to raise awareness of the therapeutic use of mature forests.
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| PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
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| Seguint els passos d'El Turista |
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Bernat Lladó. Caldes de Montbui: La Bibliogràfica, 2020. ISBN: 978-84-09-25083-7.
A travel guide through the social thought of the second half of the 20th century, through which we come to understand the cultural construction of the authenticity we all seek. The author's work is based on Dean MacCannell's The Tourist. A New Theory of the Leisure Class, a classic of social anthropology.
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| Landscape education activities for primary schools. Educational booklet |
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Strasbourg: Council of Europe 2021. ISBN 978-92-871-8666-9. Available here.
The Council of Europe's Working Group on Landscape and Education has put together this collection of activities for formal and non-formal education, with a view to engaging students in the multifaceted world of landscape, so that they can become active leaders in it.
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| Cultural and spiritual significance of nature |
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Bas Verschuuren, Josep Maria Mallarach, Edwin Bernbaum, [et.al.]. Gland: IUCN, 2021. Available here.
These guidelines offer an approach to ensuring that the cultural and spiritual values of nature play a prominent role in the governance and management of protected areas. The guidelines respond to a growing need to protect and conserve more inclusively, effectively and socially.
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| Paisatges contemporanis del Baix Llobregat. Innovació i creativitat per a un territori en transició |
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Massimo Angrilli, Carma Casulà, Xavier Florensa i Francesc Muñoz (coord.). Sant Feliu de Llobregat: Edicions del Llobregat, 2020.
The booklet offers analyses and forward-looking proposals for five landscapes in El Baix Llobregat, drawn up by professionals from different specialisations and universities all over the world who were taking the UAB-MUHBA's Master's Degree in Landscape Intervention and Heritage Management. This project was carried out in the framework of the El Baix Llobregat a Debat conference held in 2016. The director of the Landscape Observatory, Pere Sala, spoke at the presentation of the book.
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| Guia para interpretar el paisaje cafetero |
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Sebastián Ramírez; Carolina Saldarriaga. Risaralda: Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, Centro de Atención Sector Agropecuario, 2020. ISBN: 978-958-15-0578-4. Available here.
Compilation of the main features comprising the cultural landscape of coffee in Colombia, with practical and illustrated indications to help readers understand, familiarise themselves with and recognise the aesthetic, cultural and natural values of this world heritage site.
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| Arquitecturas del turismo informal. El habitar lúdico en la naturaleza |
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Xavier Martín Tost, Anna Martínez Duran. Madrid: Ediciones Asimétricas, 2020. ISBN: 978-84-17905-39-2.
This book gives pause for thought on camping as a way of inhabiting humanity's most primitive nature: nomadism. It does so by exploring three main areas: landscape, architecture and tourism.
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| Note: This newsletter is an initiative of the Landscape Observatory. If you wish to subscribe and receive it by e-mail please click here. |
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