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Conference abstract2008

European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools, and the implementation of the European Landscape Convention

Sarlöv-Herlin, Ingrid

Abstract

ECLAS; the European Council of Landscape Architect Schools, was set up to promote cooperation between university landscape architecture programmes across Europe and to represent the discipline in a broader European context. The goals are to: ‘foster and develop scholarship in landscape architecture throughout Europe by strengthening contacts and enriching the dialogue between members if Europe’s landscape academic community, by representing the interests of this community within the wider European social and institutional context and by making the collective expertise of ECLAS available in furthering the discussion of landscape architectural issues at the European level.’ It was clear from the beginning that the interests of ECLAS, The European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools, and the European Landscape Convention clearly coincide. ECLAS is regularly invited by the by the Council of Europe as an observer in the work with the implementation of the Convention on a European level. The aims of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), open for the member states of the Council of Europe, are to promote European landscape protection, management and planning and to organise European co-operation on landscape issues as a measure to achieve sustainable development. In May 2008, 29 European countries had signed and ratified the convention and 6 has signed, but not yet ratified it. The contracting states to the ELC undertake to implement four general measures: 1. to recognise landscapes in law as an essential component of people's surroundings, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage, and a foundation of their identity; 2. to establish and implement landscape policies aimed at landscape protection, management and planning; 3. to establish procedures for the participation of the general public, local and regional authorities and other parties with an interest in the definition and implementation of landscape policies; 4. to integrate landscape into its regional and town planning policies and in its cultural, environmental, agricultural, social and economic policies, as well as in any other policies with possible direct or indirect impact on landscape. The contracting states to the ELC also undertake to implement five specific measures: 1. awareness-raising: this involves increasing awareness among civil society, private organisations and public authorities of the value of landscapes, their role and changes to them; 2. training and education, including training for specialists in landscape appraisal and operations; multidisciplinary training programmes in landscape policy, protection, management and planning for professionals in the private and public sectors and for associations; school and university courses which address the values of landscapes and issues raised by their protection, management and planning; 3. identification and assessment, including guiding the landscape identification and assessment procedures through exchanges of experience and methodology. 4. Landscape quality objectives: involving landscape quality objectives for the landscapes identified and assessed, after public consultation; and 5. implementation of the convention which involves the introduction instruments aimed at protecting, managing or planning the landscape. The convention also calls to exchange of information, research results and landscape specialists. The European Landscape convention is the first treaty to focus landscape at the centre of European Policy as equally important everywhere, whether natural, rural, urban or peri-urban, comprising the same scope as the landscape architect education in Europe. Furthermore the convention includes inland, water as well as marine areas, and areas that might be considered outstanding as well as everyday or degrades landscapes. Landscapes are regarded from a transdisciplinary perspective in the ELC as the subject for integration between different disciplines and with a strong focus on the need for stakeholder participation and decision making on the lowest possible level. A number of activities and projects initiated by ECLAS are clearly linked to the agenda of the European Landscape Convention. The LE:NOTRE Project (‘Landscape Education: New Opportunities for Teaching and Research in Europe is a European Union funded Thematic Network that started in October 2002, involving more than 100 universities, as well as a range of professional and other stakeholder organisations that participate in the project. One of the central goals of LE:NOTRE is to strengthen European cooperation in landscape architecture teaching and research, just as in the line of the ELC. The project web site (www.le-notre.org), has evolved into an interactive means of communicating and sharing information between project members. Examples of project through the LE:NOTRE that are linked to the fostering of landscape architecture in Europe is the launch of JOLA, Journal of Landscape architecture, in 2006. The LE:NOTRE project is also behind the establishment of the European Urban Landscape Partnership as a recognition of the importance of the urban landscape in European policy.. It is significant because it stresses the equal importance of urban and peri-urban landscapes with natural and rural ones. The European Urban Landscape Partnership aims to support the implementation of the European Landscape Convention in urban areas by at network of cities and universities

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Leadership - Landscape Change”,