Stolen Landscape!

Terry O'Regan
Founder and Coordinator, Landscape Alliance Ireland

One night, five years ago, my old Opel Ascona was stolen from the street right in front of my house. The following morning, when I stepped out to go to work, I was left bewildered by the empty space where my car had been, not understanding what could have happened to it since the previous afternoon. The image of the car in my mind could almost fill the space, but the car was no longer there. It had disappeared!

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Results from the Sound Landscapes of Catalonia Seminar

The Sound Landscapes of Catalonia Seminar was organised jointly by the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera/University of Barcelona Innovation Centre and the Observatori del Paisatge de Catalunya and held on 11th December at the Barcelona Contemporary Culture Centre. The Seminar attracted more than 200 participants primarily from Catalonia, interested in finding out about the most noteworthy experiences in Catalonia regarding sound landscapes. The great interest sparked by this seminar led us to publish the presentations in a book, the first of the Observatori's new collection called Documents to be published in 2009.

Catalonia participates in the First Tuscan Landscape Biennial

Last November, Catalonia was the guest of honour at the First Tuscan Landscape Biennial held in Florence with more than 500 participants from around Europe. The objective of this first edition was to bring together Italian and other European experts on landscape management to study good public administration practices. Their aim is to safeguard, protect, and develop their respective territories within the framework of the European Landscape Convention. Both Catalonia and Tuscany are two regions that take landscape into account when managing and planning their territories. For this reason, representatives from the two regions' territorial planning administrations met to share their experiences when applying the European Landscape Convention principles. For further information, click here.

Dry-stone in the Baix Ebre and Montsià Regions

Due to the scope and value of dry-stone architecture found in the rural landscapes of the Baix Ebre and Montsià regions and given the threats and opportunities implied, several entities (the Catalan Illustrious College of Architects for l'Ebre province, the Baix Ebre Regional Council, the Montsià Regional Council, the Agro-environmental Services Consortia of Baix Ebre and Montsià, the Department of the Environment and Housing, the Department of Agriculture, the Autonomous University of Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology and Àmbit Rural-Unió de Pagesos) have launched an initiative to find out more about and identify this landscape, its value and uses. The initiative's aim is to inform about this landscape and propose future tools for its protection. These tools should serve to preserve this landscape and its value, while bearing in mind the developmental needs of the local area and the population's quality of life. Two specific studies were carried out: El paisatge agrari de la pedra en sec a la comarca del Baix Ebre (2004) (The Agrarian Dry-stone Landscape in the Baix Ebre Region) and Inventari de construccions de pedra en sec a la comarca del Montsià (2006) (Inventory of Dry-stone Construction in the Montsià Region). You can consult the catalogue of this unique architecture in Baix Ebre and Montsià via the following website.

Landscape in the Campania Regional Territorial Plan

The Regional Council of Campania (Italy) recently approved its Regional Territorial Plan, a document of reference for territorial planning in the region. The novel items in this Plan integrate landscape directly in territorial planning and this is done in accordance with the European Landscape Convention, as occurs in Catalonia. In this sense, the planning process incorporates participation by all the implied agents in said region.

The Plan has to help identify the region's environmental, historic and landscape resources, define local development strategies and establish recommendations for provincial, local and industry planning to be consistent with the Campania landscape protection and management objectives. For further information, click here.

'La força del paisatge' (The power of the landscape)

Dossier of the Revista de Girona corresponding to No. 250 (September-October 2008). This dossier, coordinated by Anna Ribas, geographer of the University of Girona, places special emphasis on the work for the development of the Landscape Catalogue of the Regions of Girona and the Landscape Charter of the Valley of Camprodon, among others initiatives in the field of landscape planning and education.

Recollecting Landscapes

A photographic archive of current and historical Belgian landscapes, it uses an interactive map to show us the changes taking place from 1904 to 2004.

Instituto del Paisaje. Fundación Duques de Soria

This Landscape Institute was founded in 1999 by the Fundación Duques de Soria. It organises well-known seminars every summer in Soria with landscape as their central theme. The Institute also has an ample collection of documents on landscape, the majority of which are the result of said seminars.

» Events of January and February