Vincent Négri, Chercheur au CNRS, ISP – ENS Cachan

Cultural landscapes

A juridico-historic perspective

A notion of landscape as the compelling mirror

of peoples’ and human groups’ attachment to a territory or a place

The notion of landscape

Its roots in the work of intellectuals since the beginning of the 20th century

John Ruskin

Hugo Conwentz

The notion of landscape

‘Landscape is the beloved face of the country’

“You cannot have a landscape by Turner, without a country to paint, you cannot have a portrait by Titian

without a man to be portrayed…I can get no soul to believe that the beginning of art is in getting

our country clean, and our people beautiful”(J. Ruskin Lectures on Art 1870, works, vol. 20, p. 107)

Heimatschutz landscape

Heimat : country, homeland

Schutz : protect, preserve

• The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation’s (IIIC) project for an international convention that presented landscapes as natural monuments (1930s).

• The first inter-American convention ‘on nature protection and wildlife preservation in the Western hemisphere’ (1940) aimed to protect regions that have aesthetical, historical and scientific value, defined as superlative sceneries.

Attempts to design international normative tools for the safeguarding of landscapes

• UNESCO recommendation concerning the safeguarding of beauty and character of landscapes and sites (1962)

« Considering that, on account of their beauty and character, the safeguarding of landscapes and sites, as defined in this recommendation, is necessary to the life of men for whom they represent a powerful physical, moral, while at the same time contributing to the and spiritual regenerating influence artistic and cultural life of peoples, as innumerable and universally known examples bear witness »

Attempts to design international normative tools for the safeguarding of landscapes

• Operational guidelines of the World Heritage Convention: in 1992, the notion of cultural landscape entered the field of international law through a backdoor

Cultural landscapes are cultural properties and represent the "combined works of nature and of man" […]. They are illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by their natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal.

Attempts to design international normative tools for the safeguarding of landscapes

‘A cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a culture group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result’

Carl Sauer, “The Morphology of Landscape”, 1925

‘“Urlandschaft” Original landscape, thatwhich existed before majorhuman induced changes

“Kulturlandschaft”Cultural landscape, thelandscape created byhuman culture

Otto Schlüter, 1908

Rio Declaration on environment and development (1992):

• Principle n°22: local communities participate in the decision-making process in the field of environmental management.

Social groups are allowed to reinterpret international notions their involvement

is favoured in the heritage field.

New trends

European Landscape Convention (2000)

• Art. 1 – Definitions

For the purposes of the Convention:

a) "Landscape" means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors;

• Art. 5 – General measuresEach Party undertakes:

a) to recognise landscapes in law as an essential component of people’s surroundings, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage, and a foundation of their identity;

New trends

Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (2005)

• Art. 8 – Environment, heritage and quality of life

The Parties undertake to utilise all heritage aspects of the cultural environment to:

a) enrich the processes of economic, political, social and cultural development and land-use planning, resorting to cultural heritage impact assessments and adopting mitigation strategies where necessary;

b) promote an integrated approach to policies concerning cultural, biological, geological and landscape diversity to achieve a balance between these elements;

…

New trends

What’s the meaning of cultural landscape in vernacular or local languages?

To conclude:

What’s the meaning of cultural landscape in vernacular or local languages?

i.e. Indonesian legislation : saujana as far as you can see

To conclude:

The words that translate cultural landscape encapsulate both the historically stratified meanings of the notion of landscape and the claims for increased social power of the civil society.

To conclude:

Thank you for your attention