The Impact of the European Landscape Convention on Landscape Planning in Spain, Italy and England

Abstract

The influence of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) on the landscape planning legal framework of Italy, Spain and England is discussed. The ELC defines landscape, holistically, as something perceived by people in their everyday life. Integrating landscape protection and management into every policy influencing the quality of a territory is a major ELC’s goal. This view challenges the interpretation that stresses the continuing importance of objective landscape values, such as natural beauty, recognisable by expert assessment. This dialectic also reveals a fault line between local democracy/participation and a centralist approach towards landscape protection. We found signs of such competing narratives in the landscape planning regulations of the said jurisdictions implementing the ELC, although the rationales that inspire them were little affected. We argue that the said dialectic may be seen more as an opportunity to build a more comprehensive system of landscape protection than a downside.