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Working Group on Landscape

Council of Europe, Conference of the international NGOs

24.11.2011 | What is Landscape? Landscape is the place where everything takes place, where we live, work, relax, draw our resources from, the archive of our history, the treasure trove of bio diversity, the setting for our life and the basis of social cohesion, health and a good living.
Why make Landscape a policy focus now? Landscape has been changing rapidly during the last decades. But now it comes under a pressure of previously unknown dimensions: climate change, the financial and economic crises and the new energy policy will change landscape on a really big scale. The new high-power grit for electricity, wind turbines, solar energy fields, energy-crops to name but some new developments will change the landscape completely – and social conflicts and frictions are unavoidable. These need to managed, or they will get out of hand.
What will be the benefit of Landscape as a policy focus? Landscape is close to the heart of the European citizens. Landscape is the background for our identity. Landscape policy has to be pro-active, participative and close to the people, it brings together all the different branches of policy making: social, economic, cultural, environmental – it all integrates into landscape. A modern landscape policy therefore should be integrative, democratic and strengthening the civil society.

In the ongoing reform process of the Council of Europe the Conference of iNGOs is undergoing many changes as well. We have been actively participating in this process and have fought hard to keep Landscape on the agenda. To this end we could establish a working group within the Committee for Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges, which includes Landscape as a topic. The working groups will be essential for the future work of the Conference of iNGOs. The working groups will be the place for debate and the tool to achieve results. With the reform it will be possible for NGOs to participate, who are not a member of the Conference of iNGOs and have not the specific status as a participative iNGO at the Council of Europe. CIVILSCAPE will be the leading organization of this working group. But for those of our members who are willing to contribute and to actively participate in the working group there is now a chance to so directly. If you are interested, please let me know. If you need more information or have any questions, please contact me. In this Email you will find a link to the appropriate page on the web-site of the Conference of iNGOs where you can read more about the working group and fill in an online form to become a member of the working group.

Landscape is the place where people live, work and produce as well as relax and recover. Landscape has a high importance for our culture and identity as well as for our health and well being. The landscapes of Europe are highly diversified, mirroring the great geographical diversity, the richness of our history and culture. They are also the foundation for the great bio-diversity and an economic asset. But landscape is under stress – the great changes since the beginning of the industrialization have affected our modern landscapes with increasing momentum and have led to a development of unification and a loss of diversity – in culture as well as nature.

Two major fields of European policy have a tremendous effect on our landscapes: the reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the new challenges for the European energy policies, both related also to the strategy of CO2-reduction and climate change. There are great opportunities in these processes, but especially the development of green energy (large scale bio-mass production, wind farms, solar parks, the necessary enlargement of the power grid) can also have a devastating effect on our landscapes and may lead to major conflicts within society, if landscape issues are not taken into consideration. We are concerned that landscape is not an issue in these processes nor an object of concern in the drafted policy lines.

A number of governments have already stated, that civil society involvement shall be cut down in the process of building a new high energy power grit and energy production in the landscape. The restructuring of the European agriculture away from food production towards energy production is seen as big economic chance – labeled as a green revolution to reduce CO2 production. But we already could see in the first round of the bio-energy campaign, how food prices were rising substantially, thanks to this process. What was unpleasant to many customers in Europe led to hunger revolts in many of the less developed parts of the world.

Protecting our landscape is therefore directly linked to fundamental questions of democracy, participation, social cohesion and even human rights – access to clean water, affordable food, or more abstract, to cultural identity. The changes in agriculture and land use are directly linked to the debate on climate change, CO2 reduction or the change in energy policies after Fukushima. These are major driving forces with a strong economic interest – they need to be moderated to avoid social conflicts, loss of identity, loss of bio-diversity and cultural diversity as well as to ensure a sustainable food production.

The Council of Europe has a number of conventions in place, which can help to moderate this process:. the European Landscape Convention, but also the conventions on cultural heritage, on civic participation, on democracy and on environmental issues. The working group shall work along these conventions of the Council of Europe and formulate specific and concrete measurements to implement these conventions along this major policy line. It shall come up with pro-active strategies which can be presented to the CoE, but also to national governments and parliaments or to bodies of the EU.

Expected results

Concrete actions to implement the Council of Europe Conventions, e.g. the Landscape Convention, into national and EU policies, foremost agriculture and energy. Participate in a European Civil Initiative to this goal, especially to urge the EU to become a party of the Council of Europe Convention on Landscape.

Agenda

1. Summer 2011: formation of the working group,
2. Autumn / Winter 2011: prepare concrete actions,
3. 2012. intensive contacts with other relevant bodies of the Council of Europe and EU, Spring 2013 presentation of results to the bodies of the CoE for adoption. The European civil initiative is already under preparation by CIVILSCAPE, a hearing at the European Parliament takes place on June 28, concrete agenda for the civil initiative will be worked out in the initial phase of the working group.