Landscape Policy in Portugal. Where Are We?

The Landscape European Convention was ratified by Portugal in 2005. Since then, the legal framework of land use planning and the environment has changed considerably and several policies and programs have been published. Major revisions were made in 2014 and 2015. Despite the extensive legal framework concerning land use planning, environment and nature conservation in Portugal and the emergence of a landscape policy, the legal system still does not provide specific instruments for landscape and continues to address landscape in a sectoral way. A comprehensive public landscape policy is essential, based on the concept of sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to analyze and discuss how Landscape and European Landscape Convention principles have been considered in the Portuguese legal spatial planning system, before and after the European Landscape Convention.