International Landscape Day

The International Landscape Day of the Council of Europe is celebrated on 20 October, the day of the opening of the European Landscape Convention for signature. The European Landscape Convention is the first international treaty to be exclusively concerned with all aspects of landscape: natural, rural, urban and peri-urban. It represents an important contribution to the implementation of the Council of Europe’s objectives. By taking into account the value of landscapes, with their natural and human components, the Council of Europe acknowledges that the landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas. The convention was adopted on 20 October 2000 in Florence (Italy) and came into force on 1 March 2004 (Council of Europe Treaty Series no. 176). It is open for signature by member states of the Council of Europe and for accession by the European Community and European non-member states.

Fourth International Landscape Day of the Council of Europe, 20 October2020 - “Message from Lausanne”: Landscape integration as sectoral policies

The “Message from Lausanne”, on the theme of the 23rd Council of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the implementation of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention on “Landscape integration in sectoral policies” (Lausanne, Switzerland, October 19-20, 2020), invites the actors of the territory to “to integrate landscape into its regional and town planning policies and in its cultural, environmental, agricultural, social and economic policies, as well as in any other policies with possible direct or indirect impact on landscape” (Article 5 d. of the European Landscape Convention – Council of Europe).

Third International Landscape Day, 20 October 2019 “Message from Seville”: Landscape and water

The “Message from Seville”, on the theme of the 22nd Council of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention on “Water, landscape and citizenship in the face of global change” (Seville, Spain, 14-15 March 2019), invites to promote the value of water in the landscape and to consider that the landscape, which includes inland and maritime waters, is “a key element of individual and social well-being and that its protection, management and planning entail rights and responsibilities for everyone” (Preamble of the European Landscape Convention – Council of Europe).

Second International Landscape Day, 20 October 2018 - Message from Tropea”: Landscape and education

The “Message from Tropea”, on the theme of the 21st Meeting of the Council of Europe Workshops for the Implementation of the European Convention on “Landscape and Education” (Tropea, Calabria, Italy, 3-4 October 2018), invites public authorities and landscape actors to promote “school and university courses which, in the relevant subject areas, address the values attaching to landscapes and the issues raised by their protection, management and planning” (Article 6 of the European Landscape Convention – Council of Europe).

First International Landscape Day, 20 October 2017 - “Message from Brno”: Landscape at local level

The “Message from Brno”, on the theme of the 19th Council of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention “The implementation of the European Landscape Convention at local level: local democracy” (Brno, Czech Republic, 5-6 September 2017), invites local authorities to celebrate the landscape as “an essential component of people’s surroundings, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage, and a foundation of their identity” (Article 5, a. of the European Landscape Convention – Council of Europe).

For more information about International Landscape Day please visit https://www.coe.int/en/web/landscape/international-landscape-day

List of all National contact points for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention: https://www.iflaeurope.eu/assets/docs/National_Contacts_for_implementation_of_ELC.pdf

Photo credit: APAP, Portugal