|
The long-awaited twelfth conference for the implementation of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention took place in Strasbourg in late October. The Convention's previous face-to-face meeting, for the presentation of the seventh European Landscape Awards, took place in Meteora, Greece, in April 2022. Maguelonne Dejean-Pons was Convention's Executive Secretary, and she retired that summer after more than two decades in post, bringing to an end some extraordinary efforts that all the members of the Convention acknowledged at the last conference.
Since then, the post had been vacant until the appointment of Riccardo Priore as the new Executive Secretary last spring, although the executive board had continued to work in an acting capacity. The new members of the board were also appointed at the last conference in October, at which Portugal held the presidency and Spain the vice-presidency.
The primary focus for the Convention's future work is on the link between landscapes and people's health – an area that was addressed in a report presented at the October conference, and which will be continued in a report entitled “Living Landscapes”. This relationship between the landscape, its quality and its impact on people's physical and emotional well-being is contained in the final declaration, known as the Reykjavik Declaration, which was formulated at the Fourth Summit of the Council of Europe, which took place in Iceland in May 2023. This document highlights the need to address climate change, biodiversity loss and the implementation of human rights by making landscape and its management one of the key policies to achieve this.
This is a very interesting development for the Convention, as it touches on key aspects of the Convention (such as landscape quality objectives and implementation) and emphasises its role as an overarching strategy bringing together environmental, social and cultural policies.
The major events which will take place in the future include the commemoration of the Convention's 25th anniversary in Florence on 20 and 21 October.
Twenty-five years after its publication, Europe is more conscious than ever of the need to preserve and safeguard its landscapes, especially in view of the increasingly obvious effects of climate change on people and landscapes, in the form of floods, major fires, erosion and drought, to name but a few of the most important issues.
However, a great deal of work remains to be done. The Convention itself, governments and their public policies must continue to promote legal recognition for the landscape, and to develop effective instruments for its management. This is precisely one of the most important areas that will be included in the updated version of the text of the National Cultural Landscape Plan that is currently being drafted. This is a unique opportunity to be able to bring the new text of the Plan – our tool for landscape coordination at a state level – into line with the new impetus to be given to the Convention after Strasbourg, which is more dynamic and relevant than ever and which has become a strategic text for channelling future European policies on the ground.
|
