INTRODUCTION
The European Landscape Convention is the first regional convention exclusively dedicated to the landscape issue. It was opened for signature in Florence, Italy, on 20 October 2000 and entered into force on 1 March 2004. It had been elaborated by the Council of Europe, which is an international intergovernmental organization set up in 1949, based in Strasbourg, France. Composed of 45 member states from Eastern and Western Europe, the Council has as its main objective the promotion of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
In a modern way that is in keeping with the universal principles of the Rio Declaration, the new convention gives practical effect to the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, which environment ministries of 55 countries approved in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 25 October 1995, to contribute to the implementation of the Rio Convention of 1992 on biological diversity. Action Theme No. 4 of that European Strategy, entitled “Conservation of Landscapes,” had the following aims to be achieved by the year 2000:
To prevent future deterioration of landscapes and their associated cultural and geological heritage in Europe and to preserve their beauty and identity. To correct the lack of integrated perception of landscapes as a unique mosaic of cultural, natural, and geological features and to establish a better public and policy-maker awareness and more suitable protection status for these features throughout Europe.
In the past, the perception of landscape was strongly linked with that of the conservation of nature.