The Cultural landscapes and gardens

Luciano Sánchez Pérez-Moneo
Secretary-General of the Alliance of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes

A peaceful walk through the Gardens of Aranjuez is, apart from a healthy exercise, an opportunity to muse over the land in itself, about the different questions that represent a very important issue in the discourse of scientists, experts, professionals and politicians on the garden-landscape binomial.

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Book Ordenació i gestió del paisatge a Europa

The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia has just published the book Ordenació i gestió del paisatge a Europa (Landscape planning and management in Europe), the third series of the collection "Plecs de Paisatge". This book is focused on three of the tools created and developed by the Catalan Landscape Legislation and its regulations: landscape catalogues of Catalonia, impact studies and landscape integration, and landscape charters. It analyses the application of three tools in the frame of a European comparative study and, because of this, includes interesting contributions from French, Swiss, Italian, Dutch and British experts. The aim is to offer a little taste of what are the European experiences in this field, so that any reader interested in this matter can make their own comparison with the Catalan experience. Free copies of this book, as for all the publications of this collection, are available from the Observatory on request, as well as on the website.

New image of the Observatory Web

The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia has renewed the image and contents of the Web (www.catpaisatge.net) with the objective of offering the user a wider, faster, more efficient and more simple service by using technologies up to date. One of the innovations of the Web is the section "News", dedicated to all the activity of the Observatory, which, because of its relevance, results appropriate to be accentuated. A second important innovation is the incorporation in the home site of a temporary selection of photos taken by Catalan landscape photographers. This claims to bet on photography as a tool of information, communication and awareness, and at the service of landscape regulations. A shuttled sequence or artistic pictures by Jordi Bernadó, which will be on for 6 months, open this new section. The Landscape Observatory Web first appeared in the month of July 2005 as a reference and projection tool of its activity as well as a tool for any person interested in the theme of landscape anywhere in the world, especially in Catalonia, Spain and Europe.

Contents and public information of the Landscape Catalogue of Terres de l'Ebre

The Catalan Department of Town Planning and Public Works has submitted the Landscape Catalogue of Terres de l'Ebre for public consultation for a period of one month, starting on the day after its publication in the Official Journal of the Generalitat de Catalunya (DOGC), so that allegations can be filed, thus complying with the Decree published in the DOGC and guaranteeing the highest levels of participation, transparency and proximity by the public bodies. The Landscape Catalogue of Terres de l'Ebre was presented by the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia to the Catalan Department of Town Planning and Public Works on the 10th of July 2009. Its contents can be fully accessed through the Landscape Observatory's website .

A new digital dossier on historic and botanical gardens

Gardens have today an important cultural significance. These characteristic spaces have been modelled and utterly transformed by humans and are mainly articulated around vegetation. Gardens are precious cultural assets of our country: they model landscape and improve the well-being of its citizens. Therefore, its classification, preservation and promotion are top priorities. With this aim in mind, the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia has just created Gardens, a digital dossier which is available in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. The dossier compiles and classifies key information on historic and botanical gardens of Catalonia, Spain and the rest of the world available in the Web (including institutions and bodies specializing in the research and management of these spaces) in order to become a point of reference on this topic for experts and also for a general audience. The dossier will be expanded and updated from time to time.
The Gardens dossier is the third work published in Internet by the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, after one focused on Dry-Stone Landscapes and another on Outstanding Heritage Trees.

Seville will be the seat of the RECEP cooperative organ

Seville will host the Technical Co-ordination Board of the European Network of Local and Regional Authorities for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention (RECEP-ENELC). On its third meeting (15th September, in Strasbourg -headquarter of the Council of Europe) the General Assembly –RECEP's organ responsible for political decisions - has approved the proposal to put forward the Technical Co-ordination Board of the network. During the Assembly ballot, the candidature of the region of Andalusia received the unanimous support from the representatives of the network Members, who participated in the meeting.
The board shall provide technical, scientific and administrative assistance to enable the Members and the organs of RECEP-ENELC to perform their statuary functions. Further to this support, the TCB shall be responsible for carrying out the following tasks: the development, implementation and follow-up of territorial co-operation programmes, where Members and organs of the network are involved; the development of specific projects related to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention principles at local and regional level; the implementation of training programmes with regard to landscape issues at local, regional, national and international level; the drafting of technical and scientific documents in relation to seminars, conferences and publications, in which RECEP-ENELC organs and Members are involved; and the technical co-operation with other bodies such as universities, research centres, NGOs or international organisations.

Talk on the Eighth Council of Europe meeting of the workshops for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention

The Eighth Council of Europe meeting of the workshops for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention was held last 8th-10th October in Malmö (Sweden), which title was Landscape And Driving Forces.
The convention was divided into 4 blocs in which was analysed the progress carried out in different fields such as climate change and the new energy paradigm of Europe, the globalscape, social transformations and the changes in the systems of landscape, production systems and consumption patterns in the international context. The talks were recorded and can be watched here.

European Landscape Award

In the 8th Meeting of the Workshops for the implementation on the European Landscape Convention, the European Landscape Award has been conferred to the "Parc de la Deûle", Lille Métropole (France). A special mention Award of the Council of Europe has been given to the "Parque de Christina Enea", San Sebastián. In this case, the jury considered that the work applied the criteria of territorial sustainable development, exemplarity, participation and consciousness. The European Council promotes this prize, and its objective is to award the interventions based on the performance-scope of the European Agreement of Landscape, signed in Florence in 2000.

Third International Conference of the Alliance of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes

The next International Conference of the Alliance of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes will be held in Alhambra, on the coming 25th and 26th November.
The ceremony will get many different specialists and responsible for the conservation and management of the world heritage landscape from different continents together.
The conference will consist of two parts, the first will be focused on the presentation in itself of the Alliance of Cultural Landscapes alongisde with the celebration of the general assembly of the organization, the second part will consist on a debate, which main subject of discussion will be the water use and management in World Heritage Cultural Landscapes. The conference will be aiming at promoting and further extending the network of the participants.

Exhibition 'Pagesos, home i paisatge al Baix Ter'

The Exhibition "Pagesos, home i paisatge al Baix Ter" (Countrymen, the man and the landscape in the Baix Ter, Catalonia) will be opened the next 21st November, organized by the Mediterranean Museum. It pays homage to the people living in the countryside and to the countryside, whose work throughout the generations has given shape to the landscape in the Baix Ter. It also aims to highlight the fact that farming is the activity, which has generated all these beautiful, and quite often taken in photos, landscapes. The landscape results from the action of the man in the environment, many times one of the main protagonists, the countryman, forgotten and devalued. Opposed to what has been done in many other exhibitions: giving a nostalgic point of view tied to the past and fossilized, the Mediterranean Museum wants to point the attention to the countrymen of these days and to provoke an introspection about the activity in the country.
We want to give voice to the countryside world as to speak with pride about not only the work but also about the fears when they look to the future.

Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft (NSL)

Network comprising five institutes dedicated to the study of cities, landscape and the phenomena which occur in these areas. Its principal research project is Zukunft urbane Kulturlandschaften (The future of urbanised landscapes).

Chaire UNESCO en paysage et environnement de l'Université de Montréal (CUPEUM)

Project which centres its activity principally in the periurban landscapes of cities and metropolitan areas. Participated in by Université de Montréal (Montreal University) and representatives of other bodies from Italy, Austria, Spain, Morocco and the Lebanon. In charge of the project Observatoire international des paysages périphériques: villes et métropoles (International Observatory on periurban landscapeps: towns and cities).

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