"Message from Ms Marta Rodrigues, Chair of the 13th Conference of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention
On 20 October, we celebrate the International Landscape Day, which is also the day the Council of Europe Landscape Convention was opened for signature in Florence, in 2000. Today, it brings together 42 States Parties. On this occasion, we recall the value of landscape as an expression of our identity, our cultural and natural diversity, and the relationship between communities and their territories. This is true of outstanding sites, but also of everyday places: the street we walk along, the fields at the edge of town, the riverbank, the coast, etc. Landscape quality is also essential to people's well-being, health and quality of life.
One year ago, the Florence Declaration, adopted by Ministers to mark the 25th anniversary of the Convention, reaffirmed its role in addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. It highlights integrated approaches that bring together nature, culture and landscape, and the links between landscape quality, human rights and democratic governance. It also underlines the importance of public participation and of cooperation between authorities, communities and other stakeholders.
On this International Landscape Day, all territorial stakeholders – public authorities, local communities, associations and citizens – are invited to join the celebration: by sharing their landscape projects, valuing the landscapes around them, and contributing to their protection, management and planning."
The “Message from Strasbourg”: Landscape and health, invites the competent public authorities and territorial actors to consider: the importance of the landscape at global level as an essential component of human being’s surroundings.
Preamble of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention (ETS No. 176).
It intends to respond to the challenges of the international meeting of the United Nations “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity”, 2-3 June 2022.
– express general principles, strategies and guidelines that permit the taking of specific measures aimed at the protection, management and planning of landscapes;
– establish and implement landscape policies aimed at the protection, management and planning of landscapes through the adoption of these measures.
(Articles 1 b and 5 b of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention).
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