European Landscape Convention

The European Landscape Convention (ELC) - adopted in 2000 and binding since 2004 - is the first international convention to focus specifically on landscape. It aims to improve the protection, management and planning of European landscapes. It has been signed by 27 countries, among them Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.
The ELC introduces the extended landscape definition, containing not only the visual aspects, but also the biodiversity, soil, water, climate, heritage and the socio-economic components. It covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas, including land, inland water and marine areas and not only landscapes that might be considered "outstanding" but also those that might be thought of as "everyday" or even degraded.
ELC postulates a stronger legal recognition of landscape and the establishment of landscape policy as an integral part of regional policy. The main recommended activity fields are:
Click here to read the text of the Convention.
Each country signing and ratifying the ELC commits to implementing the following requirements:
The ELC introduces the extended landscape definition, containing not only the visual aspects, but also the biodiversity, soil, water, climate, heritage and the socio-economic components. It covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas, including land, inland water and marine areas and not only landscapes that might be considered "outstanding" but also those that might be thought of as "everyday" or even degraded.
ELC postulates a stronger legal recognition of landscape and the establishment of landscape policy as an integral part of regional policy. The main recommended activity fields are:
- Awareness-raising of landscape problems
- Public participation in decisions concerning landscape
- Capacity building for landscape planners and authorities
- Assessment of regional landscapes and setting regional/local landscape quality goals
- Cross-border cooperation in landscape issues
Click here to read the text of the Convention.
Each country signing and ratifying the ELC commits to implementing the following requirements:
- Legitimising landscape as an important part of the environment that surrounds people and their general cultural and natural heritage
- Setting and implementing a landscape policy that seeks to protect, manage and plan landscape
- Increasing public, organisational and governmental awareness about the value of landscapes, their role and changes
- Integrating landscape into their spatial and urban planning policies as well as their cultural, environmental, agricultural, social and economical policies, as well as any other policies with possible direct or indirect impacts on landscape