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The International Context – the European Landscape Convention

Phillips, Adrian

This chapter describes the origins of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), the world's first and only treaty on landscape. It summarises the purposes of the ELC and the principles that underlie it, notably that all landscapes matter, that landscape requires protection, management and planning, and that people have a legitimate interest in how this is done. Countries take on a set of general commitments to give effect to these and other principles when they sign the convention. The ELC has now been widely adopted in the Council of Europe area; the UK signed in 2006. Implementation in the UK is lead by agencies at the country level. Considerable progress has been made to give effect to the convention, most notably in England through the active engagement of Natural England; however the momentum has suffered recently from funding constraints in the environmental sector. The ELC provides a favourable context for historic gardens and designed landscapes in several ways. One of its main aims is the protection of heritage landscapes, and those interested in historic and designed features, and their conservation needs should engage in the processes of landscape assessment and characterisation work that the convention encourages. The ELC also sends a message to the historic gardens community on the importance of working with local communities, local government, national agencies and European institutions in landscape‐related initiatives. The ELC provides a strong rationale to seek funding from the HLF under schemes supported through their Landscape Partnership Programme.