A new tourism, reconnecting with landscapes

The director of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, Pere Sala, will be the keynote speaker on the 12th Conference on the Council of Europe Landscape Convention, to be held on 29 and 30 October in Strasbourg (France). His address will focus on "The Council of Europe Landscape Convention: A key instrument for an innovative approach to global challenges". The Landscape Observatory has for years been an advisor to the Council of Europe on landscape issues and ensures the implementation in Catalonia of the Landscape Convention, which will be 25 years old in 2025.The purpose of the 12th Conference is to present to the State parties the current state of progress of the Convention's Work Programme and to discuss issues relating to its implementation.

The Landscape Observatory collaborated in the organization and participated in the conference 'How can renewables energies and the landscape coexist?', held last October 2 at the Ateneu Barcelonès, organized by the newspaper Diari ARA and Endesa, and where the Energy Efficiency Cluster of Catalonia also collaborated. The day gathered around seventy attendees and included two presentations by international experts (Jean-Pierre Thibault, president of the _Paysages de l'après pétrole _Association, and Bertrand Folléa, director of the Landscape and Energy Chair of the Escola Superior Nacional del Paisatge de Versailles), a round table and a debate. You can access the contents of the presentations by Jean-Pierre Thibault and Bertrand Fóllea and all the videos of the event on the Landscape Observatory page.

Risk characterisation; integration of risk into landscape management; recovery of a landscape after a disaster or major transformation; and awareness raising and involvement of local communities in the restoration of a landscape. These were the four main topics discussed from 24 to 26 September at the Casa Massieu, in Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma), by specialists and managers from Spain and abroad at the third edition of the Technical Conference on Cultural Landscapes, organised by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, under the title “Risk management and landscape recovery from the perspective of sustainability”. The director of the Observatory was invited to participate and share the Observatory’s experience in this field. The Ministry of Culture will soon publish the results of the discussions.

The Landscape Observatory has actively collaborated with the University of Santiago de Compostela and publishers Abada Editores in preparing for the publication of papers from the International Seminar “Ruinas y descampados” (Ruins and Wastelands), held in Morille (Salamanca) in 2022, which featured a number of internationally renowned thinkers and specialists in landscape theory and practice. The book shows the importance of ruins and wastelands in the fields of study linked to landscape, art and contemporary thought in general, with special emphasis on southern Europe. The publication is part of the research project DEPARQ “Landscapes and architectures of error. Counter-history of Landscape in Latin Europe (1945-2020)”, promoted by the University of Santiago de Compostela, funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and coordinated by Federico L. Silvestre and Sergio Meijide.

Various activities have been organised to complement the exhibition on dry stone, which can be seen at Oliver de Boteller Palace in Tortosa until 31 December 2024. The first is an information day on the exhibition to be held on 26 October 2024, within the framework of the European Heritage Days. The second, on 23 November, is the conference “Getting to know the dry stone heritage of Tivenys”, part of Dry Stone Week, with the participation of Jordi Grau from the Landscape Observatory. Finally, 15 educational workshops with a teaching pack for primary school pupils are to be held in October and November.

The Landscape Observatory is aware that landscape education is crucial to improve knowledge of landscape heritage and to promote greater awareness among the younger generations of the need to protect, manage and plan landscapes. With the aim of making educational resources available to the education community, the Observatory has collected educational materials and activities based on landscape for primary and secondary education in Catalonia, Spain and the rest of the world, especially in Europe and South America. It includes initiatives promoted by a wide range of public and private institutions, targeting different educational levels and approaching landscape from various perspectives.

International Landscape Day is celebrated on 20 October, the date on which, in 2000, the Council of Europe Landscape Convention was opened for accession by the member States of the Council of Europe. This date is an opportunity to recall that for the Convention, all landscapes are important - landscape is not just a beautiful landscape or a landscape postcard; it is everything that surrounds us and that we perceive as our living environment which influences our well-being. In 2024, the International Landscape Day is dedicated to relaunching the Convention, with a view to implementing the priorities on the environment defined at the 4th Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Reykjavík in May 2023. For this campaign, the Council used a photograph by Borja Ballbé, from the Image Archive of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia.

Proposals can be sent until December 31 to qualify for the fourth edition of the ENFooCA Scholarship within the Arnau Bartrina Luque Awards. The Landscape Observatory is part of the jury for this residency grant for young people between 18 and 35 years old who work on biodiversity and the landscape in a broad sense in the Garrotxa region through photography and/or video. The grants also have the collaboration of the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, the Olot Art School, the Olot City Council and the Garrotxa County Council. On October 18th, the annual event took place where the results of the ENFooca 2023-2024 grant carried out by Marçal Navarro and Wenceslau were presented with the title "És or È? Genesis of a new frontier". This year the guest at the event was Joan Nogué, geographer and former director of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, who spoke about "Thinking about the Border. Thinking about the landscape".

The Lleida Landscape Foundation has produced the document El paisatge com a bé col·lectiu d’interès social, cultural i ambiental. Ordenança del Paisatge de Lleida. (Landscape as a collective asset of social, cultural and environmental interest. Lleida Landscape Ordinance). This is a summary of the landscape ordinance passed in 2018 which aims to raise public awareness of the importance of having a quality urban landscape. It also aims to promote the understanding and application of the ordinance through short clear texts.

José A. Donaire; Manuel Poch (ed.). Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, 2024. ISBN: 978-84-10144-69-9

The Institut d'Estudis de l'Autogovern publishes this new volume of its collection, which includes seven articles (one of which was written by Pere Sala i Martí). At a time when it becomes necessary to rethink the tourist model, we want to give prominence to the protection of the environment and the well-being of people. Available here.

Carma Casulá. Barcelona: Fundació Vila-Casas, 2024. ISBN: 978-84-09-59723-9.

Catalog of this artist's photographic exhibition, which invites us to visit some of Spain's Protected Natural Areas and emphasizes the agents involved: the natural factor and the human factor.

Esther Valdés (coord.). Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2024. ISBN: 978-84-338-7384-2. Disponible aquí

Extensive compilation of academic articles and landscaping projects that deal with the most relevant topics in the current discipline. This publication collects and expands the contributions of the International Congress organized by the Spanish Association of Landscape Architects in Granada in October 2021.

Linarejos Moreno. Barcelona: Editorial RM, 2023. ISBN: 978-84-19233-94-3.

This complementary work to the exhibitions of the "On the Geography" project includes 31 'infophotographic' sheets presented as striking triptychs. It appeals to readers interested in innovative artistic approaches, offering them a multidimensional exploration of the landscape by combining artistic expression with sociological and technical analysis.

Narcís Sastre. Girona: Llibres del Segel, 2021. ISBN: 978-84-8128-981-7.

Review the recent urban evolution of Girona in traffic from the 20th century to the 21st century. Based on different plans and projects, it recounts the transformation of the city from a descriptive and critical perspective, without forgetting an essential vision of the future.

Revista Crítica Urbana Vol. VII. núm. 33. September 2024.

Different approaches to recovering and building the memory of places and communities. Experiences from art, architecture and social movements are gathered there.