Every Landscape Counts! Landscape Policy for a Higher Quality of Life
10. 10. 2019
Dolina Ščavnice pred 1980. Foto: DKAS
Dolina Ščavnice 2019. Foto: DKAS
Brežice in HE. Foto: DKAS
Every Landscape Counts! Landscape Policy for a Higher Quality of Life
10. 10. 2019
Landscape features are among the key contributors to a country’s identity; they determine the quality of life and provide numerous development opportunities. Influenced by development, the Slovenian landscape has recently experienced rapid changes, often for the worse and in an uncontrolled manner, resulting in the impoverishment of its value. Landscape is a complex mix of natural and social processes in which various interests are counterposed. To preserve and develop landscape qualities, good cooperation and coordination are necessary. European examples drawing inspiration from the European Landscape Convention prove that in order to have an effective landscape policy it is essential for society to attain broad consensus on the importance and value of the landscape and to use this basis to design a policy determining the conditions for comprehensive and inclusive landscape protection, planning, and management.
The conference Every Landscape Counts! is designed as a platform for the Slovenian Association of Landscape Architects to launch a discussion on landscape policy with conference participants from Slovenia and abroad. The first part of the conference will present the results of the project Protecting and Developing Slovenia’s Landscape and illustrate the process of designing a landscape policy with the example of Catalonia as well as with reports on the implementation of the European Landscape Convention in Slovenia and Croatia. In the second part, the conference will focus on particular features of landscape planning in suburban areas, with the discussion revolving around good-practice examples from Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. Approaches to comprehensive and inclusive landscape planning as advocated by starting points of Slovenia’s Landscape Policy will also be presented.
Protecting and Developing Slovenia’s Landscape is a project that provided the platform in the previous year for the Slovenian Association of Landscape Architects, Institute for Spatial Policies (IPoP), and CIPRA Slovenia, with support from the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, to prepare action points for developing a landscape policy. The project’s key findings guiding the preparation of landscape policy action points include:
• The influence of Slovenian society on landscape planning is reflected in environmental protection measures, nature protection measures, cultural heritage protection measures, agricultural land protection measures, spatial development planning measures, food production planning measures, and programs for developing services and tourism, all of which are not necessarily mutually compatible or related.
• Landscape planning is in practice performed by a broad spectrum of institutionalized and private players that cooperate only to a limited extent, share no common vision and development goals, and do not have enough opportunities for dialogue and finding common solutions. In practice, this leads to a lack of synergies, and sectoral measures poorly reflect the needs of the population and space.
• The Slovenian landscape is extremely diverse and well structured, and it has a dispersed settlement structure. As a result, poorly integrated sectoral measures have only had a limited impact on improvement of the spatial situation, and their effectiveness has been further weakened by the low level of involvement of the local population in spatial management.
• To increase the impact, a comprehensive and inclusive landscape-management system needs to be established, conditions for operative cross-sectoral collaboration in the field developed, and measures for an integrated solution to developmental challenges determined.
• A landscape policy designed on a national level could provide a good strategic framework for the long-term and coherent development of the landscape, integrate and harmonize development perspectives, goals, and measures designed on various levels and by various players, and thus allow us to manage the landscape as a common development resource and heritage, as well as an important component of personal and national identity.
Conference program:
SESSION 1: LANDSCAPE POLICY
8:30 Registration
9:00 Organizer’s welcome speech and keynote addresses by representatives of ministries and institutions, and other guests
Luka Javornik, president, Slovenian Association of Landscape Architects
Keynote addresses: Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning; Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food; Ministry of Culture; Ministry of Economic Development and Technology; Council of Europe Directorate General for Democratic Participation
9:45 Landscape Policy Concept
Aleš Mlakar, Jelka Hudoklin
10:15 Landscape—Speak Up: Involving the Public in Designing the Landscape Policy Concept
Katarina Žakelj, Cipra Slovenia
10:30 Discussion
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Fifteen Years of Catalonia’s Landscape Policy: Implementation and Challenges
Pere Sala i Martí, Landscape Observatory of Catalonia
12:00 Achieving the Objectives of Slovenia’s Landscape Convention
Jelena Hladnik, Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning
Implementation of Landscape Policies in Croatia
Biserka Dumbivić Bilušič, Croatian Ministry of Culture
12:30 ICOMOS and Principles of Development Protection of Landscapes
Sonja Ifko, ICOMOS Slovenia
12:45 Discussion
1:30 Lunch break
SESSION 2: SUBURBAN LANDSCAPES
3:00 Keynote addresses
Luka Javornik, president, Slovenian Association of Landscape Architects
Invited speakers: Janez Koželj, deputy mayor, City of Ljubljana
President of the Croatian Landscape Architects Association
President of the Serbian Landscape Architects Association
3:30 Lectures
Urban Landscape: A Case Study from Serbia
Urban Landscape: A Case Study from Croatia
Urban Landscape: A Case Study from Slovenia
Urban Landscape: A Case Study from Serbia
4:30 Coffee break
4:45 Lectures
Urban Landscape: A Case Study from Croatia
Urban Landscape: A Case Study from Slovenia
5:15 Discussion
Accompanying event:
6:00 Exhibition opening, catering
Location
MAO, Rusjanov trg 7