Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)8
of the Committee of Ministers to member States
on promoting landscape awareness through education
(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 17 September 2014
at the 1207th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, under the terms of Article 15.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe,
Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage;
Having regard to the European Landscape Convention (ETS No. 176), adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 19 July 2000, opened to member States for signature in Florence on 20 October 2000 and entered into force on 1 March 2004;
Concerned to achieve sustainable development based on a balanced and harmonious relationship between environment, social needs, culture and economic activity, for a better quality of life;
Noting that landscape has an important public interest role in the cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, and that it constitutes a resource favourable to economic activity whose protection, management and planning can contribute to job creation;
Aware that landscape contributes to the formation of local and regional cultures and that it is a basic component of European natural and cultural heritage, contributing to human well-being and consolidation of the European identity;
Acknowledging that landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: both in urban and rural areas, in high quality or in degraded areas, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty and in everyday areas;
Noting that developments in agriculture, forestry, industrial and mineral production techniques, the expansion of urban areas and of infrastructure networks, the increase in transport, tourism and recreation activities and, at a more general level, changes in the world economy are in many cases accelerating the transformation of landscapes;
Wishing to respond to the public’s demand to enjoy high-quality landscapes and to play an active part in the management of landscapes;
Believing that the landscape is a key element of individual and social well-being and that its protection, management and planning entail rights and responsibilities for everyone;
Acknowledging that the quality and diversity of European landscapes constitute a common resource, and that it is important to co-operate towards its protection, management and planning;
Considering the aims of the European Landscape Convention and wishing to encourage its implementation;
Referring to Article 6.B of the European Landscape Convention on specific measures for training and education, which states that “Each Party undertakes to promote: [...] school and university courses which, in the relevant subject areas, address the values attaching to landscapes and the issues raised by their protection, management and planning”;
Recalling the principles laid out in the Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)3 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the guidelines for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention, regarding how school curricula should foster children’s awareness of and sensitivity to landscape;
Having regard to its previous recommendations:
- concerning the promotion of an awareness of Europe in secondary schools (Recommendation No. R (83) 4);
- on the role of the secondary school in preparing young people for life (Recommendation No. R (83) 13);
- on aid for artistic creation (Recommendation No. R (85) 6);
- on teaching and learning about human rights in schools (Recommendation No. R (85) 7);
- on the role of museums in environmental education, information and training (Recommendation No. R (90) 18);
- concerning heritage education (Recommendation No. R (98) 5);
- on ensuring quality education (Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)13);
Considering that one of the aims of education is to train young people and equip them with a set of skills necessary for citizenship and democracy;
Asserting that educational activities in the landscape field are an excellent way of giving meaning to the future;
Recommends that the governments of member States Parties to the European Landscape Convention adopt legislative, regulatory, administrative, financial and other appropriate measures to initiate or to develop landscape education activities and to promote landscape awareness among the young in accordance with the principles set out in the appendix to this recommendation.
Appendix to Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)8
I. Principles and proposals
a. General principles on teaching and learning processes
The subject of landscape as defined by the European Landscape Convention provides many advantages for pupils’ education and is an important means for them to become familiar with the surroundings considered as their living space and to understand them. It should provide an opportunity for pupils to discover the role of each individual in his or her role as an inhabitant of the landscape surrounding them, as a guardian of its identity and its culture and as a protagonist aware of its future development.
Children, the citizens of tomorrow, should be able to develop the knowledge and understanding necessary to take care of this source and resource and understand the best ways to contribute to landscape protection, management and planning for present and future generations.
It is therefore necessary to gradually provide pupils with a basic knowledge of the landscape at all school levels in order to show them that the landscape is not just the visual aspect of a place, but a territorial entity where numerous natural and human factors interact. The landscape should consequently be studied in all its complexity through the developmental processes that modify it.
Educational methods should be primarily based on direct observation and on active participation involving pupils’ research into, and discovery of, the landscape. School outings should be encouraged to enable pupils to understand, through direct observation, that the landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.
Pupils at all levels of education should be offered educational opportunities in landscape-related themes adapted to their age and experience.
b. Proposals to public authorities for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention through the promotion of landscape education
The competent authorities should be invited to:
– introduce landscape education into primary and secondary school curricula to enable school pupils to acquire a knowledge of the landscape and an understanding of its values, features, importance and role with regard to the quality of people’s living environment;
– to promote school teaching that involves activities which will foster understanding and knowledge of the landscape;
– to encourage school pupils to acquire knowledge and understanding not only of the landscape in which they live, but also of other landscapes with different characteristics and features;
– to encourage school pupils, as early as secondary school, to participate in and present proposals for projects and plans for the protection, management and planning of the landscape in which they live;
– to promote capacity-building training for teachers in order to develop their ability to transmit to school pupils the basic knowledge they need to understand the landscape.
II. Implementing landscape awareness through education
The competent authorities should be invited to promote landscape education, which is interdisciplinary by its very nature, in the framework of different school subjects at all levels and in all types of teaching, be it formal, non-formal or informal, considering the following provisions:
– encourage the setting up of educational departments in organisations responsible for landscape;
– organise workshops and training, both theoretical and practical, in which teachers could, wherever possible, involve professionals;
– set up a partnership for landscape education activities on an official basis between the relevant ministries, if possible within existing structures;
– encourage and facilitate initiatives taken by schools, landscape professionals and associations, in so far as they correspond to the definitions and goals of the European Landscape Convention;
– undertake assessment of landscape education activities or initiatives by the relevant ministries and/or partners, especially considering the educational results.
III. Documentation and material
The relevant authorities and ministries in each State should be encouraged to produce or commission teaching material relating to landscape if it does not exist already. It would be useful for landscape and education specialists to produce together a handbook of teaching methods that would be helpful to teachers in this particular field.
The most up-to-date information and communication technology should be available for landscape education activities. It would be useful to provide schools with materials and audiovisual equipment to help them develop and update their knowledge of landscapes.
Exchange of experience and a better multilateral dissemination of information on landscape education should be ensured through the European Landscape Convention Information System of the Council of Europe.