The landscape of County Westmeath is timeless, mythical, and unique but what are the plans for its future? From October 14 to 16, experts for America, Canada, and Europe will share examples of landscape management and planning challenges they have faced, many of which are similar to those faced in Ireland.
The conference is an opportunity for local authorities, planners and those with a stake in the Irish Landscape to come together and debate how people can work more closely together to protect and plan for our landscape. This conference will set an agenda for Ireland’s landscape into the future, pointing Ireland in the direction of the best legislative framework and most appropriate structures required to achieve it.
The Irish Landscape is seen as uniquely precious to Ireland’s overseas visitors and contains all of our natural and cultural resources. Yet the reality is that key elements of the landscape are treated as so many silos, with their separate protective frameworks. For example, housing, agriculture, infrastructure, forests, water, tourism, and environmental protection are each treated as isolated objects, very often yielding up contradictory and conflicting objectives because of unclear and overlapping laws.
Speaking about the conference, Michael Starrett, chief executive of the Heritage Council said, “Ten years ago, when the pace of change in our urban and rural landscapes was turbo-charged as the Celtic Tiger roared into life, the Heritage Council’s first Landscape Conference heard a warning from Professor Fred Aalen that, ‘serious damage to our landscape and the environment must be anticipated when dynamic economic growth occurs’. No one would argue with the fact that in the intervening years, Ireland’s landscapes, and our people, have witnessed dynamic economic growth.”
“The big question is whether we were well enough equipped to prevent ‘serious damage’ to landscape and environment. The context in which we now find ourselves in advance of the upcoming 2009 Landscape Conference has changed dramatically from what faced us in 1999. A range of international, European, national, regional, and local speakers will be present during the conference. These include speakers from the Council of Europe, the Landscape Observatory in Catalonia, Parks Canada, International Council on Monuments and Sites, Natural England, Teagasc, Failte Ireland, Coilte, the Environmental Protection Agency, Local Authorities, Irish Universities, Professional Institutes, farming organisations and local community groups.
Highlights of the conference will include a presentation from the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley as well as Maguellone Dejant-Pons, from the Council of Europe and Professor Richard Forman, the renowned landscape ecologist from Harvard.
