Implementing Landscape Policies by Promoting Sustainability, Democracy, and Participation. Awareness Raising and Landscape Education in Trentino, Italy

The chapter analyses the experience of a “Landscape School” activated in the Province of Trento (Trentino), Italy. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) introduced the concept of landscape as a space perceived and lived in by the local community. The emphasis is on the relationships established between people and the space they live in, or the places they experience. Following the ELC orientation, a new institutional system has been activated in Trentino, which revolves around a School for spatial planning and landscape management (step), responsible for implementing landscape education activities, supporting the Landscape Observatory, as well as carrying out other actions on outstanding landscape values. The School operates within a network of local actors, operators, and stakeholders who express an educational demand while bringing in experiences and knowledge. It adopts an experiential method, making use of a variety of “learning devices” to actively involve recipients in activities based on the sense of landscape as a common value.