Twenty years of Landscape Policy and Governance in Europe, and the Way Ahead

The European Landscape Convention (ELC), which came into effect in 2004, has been ratified by 40 countries since its signing in 2000. For the first time in history, all these countries with rich and diverse landscape cultures as well as different institutional frameworks agree on a legal definition of landscape and common goals for landscape policies. The implementation of the ELC has ushered in innovations in their legislation, governance and administrative processes, and spatial planning systems. A systematic comparison is lacking and, while landscape heritage protection has internationally accepted protocols, landscape planning has not. This paper proposes a framework for a comparative analysis and, based on the collection of contributions to this section, drafts some initial considerations. After more than twenty years of implementation of the ELC, the most challenging issues seem to be participation, conflict management and strategy making.