Landscape Architecture Challenges

Martha Cecilia Fajardo
President of the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) from 2002 down to a few days before writing these lines for our newsletter

I would like to thank the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia (an extraordinary cyberspace tool which aims to raise awareness of landscape issues in society in general) for giving me the opportunity as the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) Immediate Past President to reflect on the profession. Looking in perspective my last four years as IFLA president, I want to take the opportunity to reflect on IFLA and the significance of landscape architecture on a global level.

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Study and report on landscape impact and integration

In December last year, the Departament de Política Territorial i Obres Públiques de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Ministry of Town and Country Planning and Public Works of the Government of Catalonia) and the Fundació Territori i Paisatge organised a symposium in Barcelona's La Pedrera building focusing on defining and analysing the study and report on landscape impact and integration, as newly created instruments defined by the Decree that enlarges upon the Law on the Protection, Management and Planning of the Landscape of Catalonia. The landscape impact and integration study is a technical document intended to examine the consequences for the landscape of the implementation of action programmes, works projects and activities, and to set out the criteria adopted for integrating them. The landscape impact and integration report, on the other hand, is the verdict to be issued by the Direcció General d'Arquitectura i Paisatge (Directorate General for Architecture and the Landscape of the Government of Catalonia) for assessing the suitability of the measures proposed in the landscape impact and integration study.
You can find further information here.

Good-practice data sheets for the vineyard landscape of the Penedès region

The Departament de Política Territorial i Obres Públiques de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Ministry of Town and Country Planning and Public Works of the Government of Catalonia) and the pro-vineyard association Al Penedès, Vinyes!, which brings together a significant number of wine-making enterprises in the Alt Penedès region (Catalonia, Spain), has recently published a guide to good practices in looking after vineyards. The publication, which goes under the title Good-practice datasheets: the vineyard landscape of the Penedès, is an initiative coming under the Landscape Charter for the Alt Penedès. Its objective is to promote quality vineyards and greater awareness of the values of the vineyard landscape among producers and the people in general. This document, which is technically thorough and aimed at the general public, comprises ten data sheets arranged in five broad blocks on various aspects of wine making: economic, ecological and social. Advice and recommendations for improving the landscape are given for each of these sections, and there is also a short glossary and bibliographic references.

Recognition for the Collegats-Terradets Territorial Park Project

The Collegats-Terradets Territorial Park is an initiative from the Regional Council of Pallars Jussà (Catalonia, Spain), its main aim being to enhance the economic development of the zone through boosting and valorising its landscape. The structure of the Park is arranged around what are termed the ‘blue ways', following waterways, and the ‘green ways', following traditional tracks and footpaths. The project was selected recently for inclusion in the publication Catalogue of good practices in the landscape, launched by the PAYS.DOC initiative, along with four other Catalan projects, namely the European Landscape Biennial, the landscape restoration of the Vall d'en Joan waste depot, the Special Plan for the Market-Garden land of Santa Eugènia in Girona, and the website of the Landscape Observatory. The Park has also been shortlisted among the twenty European candidates entered for the Second Mediterranean Landscape Prize, which will be held in this year of 2007.

The First Biennial on Architecture, Art and the Landscape in the Canary Islands (Spain)

The problems posed by the culture-nature dialectics in these early years of the twenty-first century has a clear effect on the art and social life we share. Moving beyond local and transnational interests, the need for a new civic culture is becoming clear, one enabling the unwanted effects of the new world organisation to be tackled lucidly and with dignity. It must be realised that globalisation, tourism and unstoppable migratory flows are radically impinging on the physical, social and cultural landscape. In this context, the Canary Islands (Spain) has become a special observatory over recent years, and an outstanding laboratory for those changes. Hence it is appropriate to stage the Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial there, for this event has made the traces of these new cultural vectors converge on the islands – and weigh on their landscape. At the same time, the symposium arranged with it mapped out the complex cultural scene of the Canary Islands, with the participation of highly regarded specialists from all the fields involved.
You can find further information here.

Spiritual values at Montserrat

On 23-26 November 2006, the Natural Mountain Park of Montserrat (Catalonia, Spain) hosted the first workshop of the Iniciativa Delos Initiative, arranged by the Task Force on cultural and spiritual values in areas protected by the Commission on Protected Areas of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Experts from Europe, America and Asia took part in it, along with a group of observers from public authorities, universities, and Catholic and Buddhist monasteries. Eleven case studies from Spain, Finland, Greece, Japan, Romania, the United Kingdom and the USA were presented, they having been drawn up to promote positive synergies between the conservation of the intangible natural, spiritual and cultural values of those natural areas. The Minutes will be published in 2007, co-published by the IUCN and Monserrat Abbey.
You can find further information here.

'Bitllets' (VerdCel, 2006)

First Video Clip of the VerdCel music group from Valencia, prepared with video projections of the innovative show "PaisViatge" created from journeys and thoughts on and around landscape.

'Saving tranquil places. How to project and promote a vital asset'

An initiative by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which involves calculating the tranquillity index for rural landscapes, based on visitor numbers, the presence of motorised transport, lighting pollution and acoustic quality.

Fédération nationale des associations du patrimoine et des paysages (FNASSEM)

This Federation was founded in 1967 by the French mountaineer Henry de Ségogne to make public opinion aware of the need to protect the landscape heritage of France. It brings together defenders of the French heritage and landscape. The website has a directory of some 2,000 associations, and a section devoted to the facets of the French heritage that are under threat.

Centro Internazionale di Studi sui Paesaggi Culturali

Centre attached to the Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Ferrara University, Italy) which, since 2002, has concentrated its research and teaching activities in the field of management and promotion of the cultural heritage, and the protection and evaluation of the landscape according to the principles of the European Landscape Convention.

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