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For a nation characterised by the distinctiveness of its rural life and the uniqueness of its local traditions, one would assume that the landscapes of Wales, along with their counterparts in other parts of the UK, would be acknowledged in some strategic and national context. Surprisingly this is not the case.
Elsewhere in Europe things are different and landscapes of all kinds are recognised as having their own individual and intrinsic values. From the vine-covered hills of Alsace to the snowy mountains of the Caucasus; from the boulevards of Paris to the cobble streets of Prague, European landscapes, exceptional and ordinary, are recognised as important parts of a common European Heritage.
Why does this difference exist?
The simple answer is that in 24 other European countries, Governments have ratified the European Landscape Convention. In the UK we have not.
Whilst wildlife and the protection of air and water quality are subject to a whole variety of European measures, landscapes have been largely ignored. Things are however changing and the contribution that landscapes make to the well being of a nation and the quality of its people’s lives was given a real boost when the European Landscape Convention, the world’s first landscape treaty, came into being on St David’s Day, March 1st, this year.
Previously no international legal Treaty dealt directly, specifically or fully with landscapes and their protection, development and sustainable management. The European Landscape Convention fills that gap and takes the Council of Europe’s family of heritage conventions into new territory.
Why is the European Landscape Convention important?
Rather than simply hitching another type of heritage to the canon, this Convention takes a new approach by promoting the cultural significance and social value of all landscapes and expands concerns from simply looking at parts of our heritage, for instance monuments, buildings or species of wildlife, to a concern for the whole landscape. For this reason, it breaks new ground in terms of its simplicity and its inclusiveness.
So what makes the Convention different?
The foundations of the Convention are rooted in the premise that landscape1 is a product of people’s perception. Landscape in other words is not simply another word for environment but is created in the eyes, minds and hearts of those who view or use it and it takes on a particular meaning when its components or real values are seen through the filters of memory, association, understanding and interpretation. One of the strengths of the Convention is its recognition that landscape appreciation is not just the province of expert judgement. The Convention embraces the need for dialogue and an exchange of views amongst and with ordinary people, in order to build up a democratic perception of what is of significance and of value so far as landscapes are concerned.
Democratising landscapes in this way however, requires people to have access to the process for deciding which landscapes are most valued and, more importantly, a role in the processes by which judgments about landscape protection, management and change are made. The Convention offers this and states unequivocally that landscape is not just a common resource but one which should be shared to the extent that everyone has a right, and indeed a responsibility, to help construct and protect society’s perception of its values. This democratic aspect is underlined by the Convention’s innovative insistence that its ambitions apply everywhere and to the whole landscape, even those that are perceived as spoiled or damaged.
What does the Convention say ?
More than anything, the Convention conveys a strong concern for awareness raising, the exchange of information and expertise. It promotes multi disciplinary approaches and the need for a clear process of understanding and assessment of the values of landscapes.
28 COE Member States have signed
10 have ratified Came into force on 1/3/2004
The key aims of the Convention therefore focus on promoting landscape protection, management and planning, and organising European co-operation on landscape issues. Its core idea is to encourage three kinds of action:
A unique feature of the Convention is the opportunity it provides to confer the "Landscape Award of the Council of Europe". This award is an acknowledgement of the policies or measures applied by a local or regional authority or by a non governmental organisation to protect, manage or plan their landscape in ways which will be lastingly effective and serve as an example to others.
How does the Convention operate?
Member States ratify the Convention and having done so commit themselves to
If it is so beneficial and democratic, why is the UK not party to the Treaty?
For a country steeped in a history of landscape aesthetics and a philosophy of landscape appreciation, the Westminster Government’s reluctance to sign the Convention is both bizarre and worrying. With Local Authorities in Wales being increasingly encouraged to take landscape values into account in their decision-making, paradoxically our Government continues to resist signing the Convention and perhaps more disturbingly, refuses to acknowledge its relevance.
The UK therefore now stands alongside only three other EU countries (Austria, Germany and the Netherlands) which have not yet said that they will join the Convention. Whilst these circumstances remain, the natural and man made landscapes of Wales and those who seek to protect and steward them, sit in a wilderness of European recognition and a vacuum of democratic relevance.
Surely as the Assembly contemplates how best to fulfil its sustainable development responsibilities and to co ordinate the implementation of its forthcoming Wales Spatial Plan, what better opportunity exists than to use the scope of the European Landscape Convention to integrate landscape values into both these important agendas? Applying the Convention to Wales offers the Assembly an unique opportunity to publicly demonstrate its commitment to safeguarding and managing all the landscapes of Wales in a sensitive and responsible manner.
CPRW has already urged the Welsh Assembly to challenge the Government to recognise the outstanding quality and diversity of the landscapes of the UK and especially in Wales by ratifying the Convention.
We will continue to champion this cause and in so doing carry with us one of the Convention’s key messages; … there is only one landscape and all parts of it matter to someone. Whether very old or very recent, every landscape is a part of our collective culture, the setting of someone’s life, a focus for a person’s heritage and identity and most importantly the foundation for creating landscapes and a better quality of life for the new century.