Landscape

“Landscape” means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factor. A landscape includes the physical elements of geophysically defined landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of land use, buildings, and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions. Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and national identity.

European Landscape Convention – Council of Europe

The European Landscape Convention (ELC), also known as the Florence Convention, was adopted in Strasbourg by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 19 July 2000 and was opened for signature in Florence in October 2000. As of 10th October 2022, 40 countries have ratified the Convention, Malta has signed the Convention on 20th October 2000, and has not yet ratified.

The main objectives of the ELC are to promote landscape protection, management and planning, and to organise co-operation on landscape issues between Parties to the Convention. The Convention applies to the entire territory of the Parties and covers all landscapes, natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas, whether on land, inland water or marine areas. It concerns not just remarkable landscapes but also ordinary everyday landscapes and degraded areas.

The Protocol amending the ELC was concluded in 2016 and is open for ratification, acceptance or approval by the Parties to the Convention. The amendment caters for the promotion of European co-operation with non-European States who wish to implement the provisions of the Convention, it does not affect the substance of the Convention and State Party obligations therein.

The preamble of the Convention states that: ‘The landscape has an important public interest role in the cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, and constitutes a resource favourable to economic activity and whose protection, management and planning can contribute to job creation; contributes to the formation of local cultures and is a basic component of the European natural and cultural heritage, contributing to human well-being and consolidation of the European identity’. The landscape, and its protection and sustainable management, thus contributes to quality of life.

Besides the environmental, economical and social benefits that the implementation of the Convention will bring, it will also indirectly help Malta achieve its national and EU objectives in relation to environmental protection. Green Infrastructure and landscape planning is viewed as being one of the main tools to tackle threats on biodiversity resulting from habitat fragmentation, land use change and loss of habitats. It is also regarded as a tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The ELC specifically requires Parties to undertake the following obligations:

  1. To recognise landscapes in law 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;
  2. To identify and assess landscape and define landscape quality objectives for the landscapes identified and assessed after public consultation;
  3. To establish and implement landscape policies aimed at landscape protection, management and planning through the adoption of the specific measures and instruments;
  4. To establish procedures for the participation of the general public and stakeholders with an interest in the definition and implementation of the landscape policies;
  5. To increase awareness, training and education of the value and role of landscapes, their appraisal and management, and changes to them;
  6. 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.

The Council of Europe intergovernmental committees supervise the Convention’s implementation. The Convention also provides for a Council of Europe Landscape award, to be given to local or regional authorities or an NGO which introduced exemplary and long-lasting policies or measures to protect, manage and plan landscapes.

At national level, the main provisions of the ELC are addressed through Maltese planning and environmental legislation (particularly in the Development Planning Act, Environment Protection Act, Cultural Heritage Act, as well as the Local Plans).

For additional information on Maltese Landscapes, the following may be of relevance – Landscape Diversity and Protection in Malta.