European Landscape Convention
The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is a Council of Europe convention and has been in force in the UK since 1 March 2007. Specifically included within its scope are the coastal waters and territorial seas of its ratifying states. The ELC contains a range of measures aimed at promoting landscape protection, management and planning, underpinned by principles of sustainable development. It specifically recognises the role of landscape as a basic component of cultural heritage and identity and as an important contributor to quality of life, from which its management is a legitimate object of public interest. It also requires that landscape policies should be integrated with all spheres of government policy.
The ELC embodies concepts already at the heart of historic landscape and seascape characterisation, including the central roles of human perception in defining landscapes and of human activity in creating them. This is clearly expressed in the ELC definition of landscape: ‘an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors’. It also shares with HLC and HSC the need for a territorially comprehensive approach, encompassing commonplace and poorly regarded landscapes as well as the rare and special. The ELC obliges us to engage in understanding and managing our dynamic landscapes everywhere, in ways that recognise their diversity and the complex interplays of cultural and natural forces that influence their perception.
The ELC provides strong contexts for characterising our coastal and marine landscapes. In embodying the principles of HLC, historic seascapes characterisation (HSC) offers an effective tool in meeting our ELC obligations, building a comprehensive, landscape-scale understanding capable of accommodating and informing a range of perceptions.
Further information on the European Landscape Convention can be found on the Council of Europe website
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