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Coordinamento degli Osservatori del Paesaggio del Piemonte (Landscape Observatories of Piedmont Network)

Landscape observatories of Piedmont - The landscape, common denominator for a new social commitment

The Observatories of the Landscape were established in Piedmont during the second half of the Nineties and the early years of 2000. They aim to unite and re-launch a movement which, in the Eighties had led on the one hand to the creation of groups operating in the field of the conservation of historic-artistic patrimony (cultural heritage) and on the other, to the constitution of associations committed to safeguarding the environment. Since the beginning of this century the associations operating in these two areas have tended to converge in their identification of the landscape as the common denominator of their actions.
The landscape, the relationship between what is built by man and what exists in nature, thus becomes the unifying factor of experiences that affect different sectors of civil society. In order to strengthen this process of convergence , on the initiative of the Council of Europe, the European Landscape Convention was approved in Florence in 2000 , an international agreement that is the operative instrument for implementing the petitions lodged by the associations.
The Landscape Observatories of Piedmont were born spontaneously in response to the needs of civil society and have combined to give form to pre-existing, loosely connected organisations. The Code of Cultural Heritage (Codice dei Beni Culturali), under article 2 paragraph 4, refers to the expediency that the Regional Council (Regioni) should establish observatories but the Landscape Observatories of Piedmont have a different genenis.
In May 2009 there are seven Landscape Observatories in Piedmont region:

      Osservatorio dei Parchi del Po e della Collina Torinese
      Osservatorio del Paesaggio per il Monferrato e l’Astigiano
      Osservatorio del Paesaggio Alessandrino
      Osservatorio del Paesaggio di Langhe e Roero
      Osservatorio del Paesaggio per il Monferrato Casalese
      Ecomuseo dell’Anfiteatro Morenico di Ivrea
      Osservatorio Beni Culturali e Ambientali del Biellese

The birth of the observatories group of the landscape of Piedmont

The first observatory of the landscape in Piedmont was the Observatory of Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Biellese set up in 1994; an organisation that represents about twenty associations and bodies and which began its involvement with the landscape in 1999 by launching a first public awareness campaign , followed by a second one between 2006 and 2008. The other eight observatories have been established more recently in other areas of the region.
The first step on the road to coordination was taken in June 2006 when the Piedmontese Observatories were convened at Villadeati (Alessandria) by the Observatory of the Landscape for the Monferrato Casalese.
In the autumn of 2006 the Observatories Group of the Landscape of Piedmont was formally established and the Observatory of Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Biellese was assigned the role of coordinator.
At present the Group is composed of the nine organisations listed above. These are bodies with different legal capacities as each one represents its own territory of origin: some are organisations which represent associations, others are eco-museums and there are also observatories created within public institutions such as the Parks of the Po and the Turin Hills. In spite of the varied habitus , however , all the Observatories are united in their common adhesion to the principles of the European Landscape Convention which represents the binding element and the incentive for interventions on the territory.

The piedmontese observatories in the European network CIVILSCAPE

In February 2008 the Group of the Observatories of the Landscape of Piedmont was a founding member of CivilScape.- the European network of non- governmental organisations which work for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention – and the chairman of the Observatory of Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Biellese was co-opted onto the board of this association where he also sits as delegate of the eco-museum network Local Worlds.
CivilScape is an organisation that represents civil society within a more complex network including RECEP (Network of local organisations for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention) and Uniscape (the European Network of universities for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention).

Activities of the observatories group

The Observatories Group is committed on two fronts. Internally, the member organisations work to strengthen cohesion and the sharing of the principles of the European Convention. Externally, they operate with institutions and other associations to increase the representativeness of the Observatories and to consolidate their role as mouthpiece of the petitions of civil society in an administrative and political field.
In this second context the Group collaborates with Ires Piemonte , at the instigation of the Region, to formulate a report on the state of the landscape which will be produced on a regular, annual basis.
The Group and the individual Observatories are also involved in awareness - raising enterprises, either independently or in association with projects such as European Landscape Day , as well as projects to implement the European Landscape Convention in a local sphere such as the Biellese Landscape Project (Progetto Paesaggio Biellese).
In the past few years the Landscape Observatories of Piedmont has become a case-study of national and international relevance.


The Biellese experience: Osservatorio and Ecomuseo working together for the landscape

The Osservatorio Beni Culturali e Ambientali del Biellese¹ and the Ecomuseo Valle Elvo e Serra² have been working together on landscape issues since 1999. In October of that year they take part in the Prima Conferenza nazionale per il paesaggio, (First National Landscape Conference ) organised in Rome by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Events which reinforced the guidelines of the Convenzione europea del paesaggio (CEP), an international treaty which was adopted and open for signature in 2000.
Acknowledging the principles of the ELC, the Osservatorio adopted the landscape as a leading-them for the activities of the 23 associations it represents and organised the first three-years campaign of awareness-raising called Insieme per il Paesaggio (1999-2001). Drawing attention to the different types of landscape in the Biellese area was the common denominator of that campaing. Associations and public audience were asked to take part in actions for knowing, feeling and defending the landscape.
When the ELC came into force in Italy in September 2006, the Osservatorio organised a second triennial campaign called Insieme nel Paesaggio (2006-2008), which took into account the entire landscape of the territory and therefore included the degraded areas, with the emphasis on the meaning of living, as summary of the three previous precepts (knowing, feeling, defending).
A way of involving the local inhabitants was also experimented - cammin-saggio³ – borrowed from the experience of the Ecomuseo. Cammin-saggio were a series of guided wandering inside the various landscapes; the aim of this activity was to helping people to recognize and explore the places in which their lived their daily life.
At the same time, within Mondi Locali network, the Ecomuseo organised the Prima Giornata nazionale del Paesaggio, (First national Landscape Day), an event in which 30 ecomuseums from 10 regions of Italy took part. www.giornatadelpaesaggio.eu

A new role for the Observatories of the landscape and the Ecomuseums?
The aim of these two initiatives is to identify a recognised role in the chain that connects Europe with the local communities:

• both for second-grade organisations like the Osservatorio Biellese which represents groups of inhabitants joined together in association and charities;
• and for first-grade ones such as the ecomuseums which are often the direct expression of the inhabitants.

Article 6 of the ELC opens by focusing on the involvement of the population and closes with the measures to be taken to attain the perceived objectives (awareness-raising – training and education- identification and assessment- landscape quality objectives- implementation).
A functional role especially with regard to the first action in the sequence - awareness-raising - is needed but form and the method are still to be worked out, without compromising the specificities that distinguish and define such organisations .

(1) Established in 1994 (o.n.l.u.s. since 1998) on the initiative of Francesco Alberti La Marmora, the Osservatorio Beni Culturali e Ambientali del Biellese is a small “parliament of civil society”, which today includes 23 cultural organisations , foundations and associations which undertake research activities on the territory, act as mouthpiece for the local communities and deal with denouncements and the defence of patrimonies at risk.
(2) Established in 1997 (o.n.l.u.s. since 1998) on the initiative of a group of residents , the Ecomuseo Valle Elvo e Serra joined the Osservatorio and the Ecomuseum network of the Biellese in 1998, is managed by the Provincia di Biella and was recognised in 2000 by the Regione Piemonte. The assembly of the Ecomuseo del Biellese now consists of 15 ecomuseum sites (cells), 5 of which in the Valle Elvo e Serra, and of numerous cultural organisations , including the Osservatorio itself. www.ecomuseodelbiellese.it
(3) Cf. Campagna Insieme nel Paesaggio, on the site www.paesagginfestival.it