CHeriScape I

Ghent (Belgium), 1st – 2nd of July 2014

Landscape as Heritage in Policy

The first CHeriScape conference set the scene for the series by getting to the heart of the issue: how can the idea of landscape as heritage begin to ‘make a difference’. Assisted by well-informed and influential speakers from both landscape and heritage fields, participants at this two day conference were able to use the forum offered by the conference to consider how landscape can be reflected in heritage policy at European and national levels and conversely, how can policy be made to reflect landscape and heritage in mainstream areas of social, economic and environmental policy.

We investigated the practical and symbiotic links between the two Council of Europe conventions that cover this area – the European Landscape Convention (2000, Florence) and the Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (2005, Faro) – and the cooperative possibilities they offer for facing societal and environmental challenges both locally and through landscape’s global framework. The conference explored different national and disciplinary traditions, identities and through dialogue between researchers, policy makers, local people and other stakeholders illuminate better ways for the European common cultural heritage to help address current and future the major challenges at all policy levels.

The conference covered three themes.