LE:NOTRE is part of the European Landscape Consortium, which is an ad hoc association of seven European specialist landscape organisations. It was formed over the summer of 2025 in response to the 25th anniversary of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention. It aims to promote a wider recognition of the importance of landscape at the level of European policy, in particular with the European Union.
We see ourselves as partners in a transformative science and are open to join forces with NGOs, local authorities, communities to come together to exchange ideas and deepen their understanding of the landscape and of each other’s’ approach to it.
We aim to extend our network with organisations of all fields that contribute to sustainable landscape transformation.
The founding members, in alphabetical order, are
- European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools
- International Association of Landscape Ecology – European Section
- International Association of Landscape Archaeology
- International Federation of Landscape Architects – European Region
- Landscape Research Group
- LE:NOTRE Institute – Linking Landscape Education, Research and Innovative Practice
- UNISCAPE – European Universities Network for Landscape Studies
Bringing together European specialists from academia, research and practice, the European Landscape Consortium aims to make their collective expertise available to play an important role in promoting a wider understanding of the role that a landscape approach can play in a wide range of European policy fields, thereby benefitting the people of Europe and the landscapes in which they live and work and spend their leisure time.
Already 41 members of the 46 strong Council of Europe are parties to the Council of Europe Landscape Convention, by virtue of which they have, amongst other things, recognised that “the landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in urban areas and in the countryside, in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas”[1]. Our goal is to help translate this understanding into practical European Union policy.
Amongst the 41 signatory states to the Landscape Convention are 25 of the 27 member states of the European Union. Together with the other signatories, they have committed themselves to “integrate landscape into its regional and town planning policies and in its cultural, environmental, agricultural, social and economic policies, as well as in any other policies with possible direct or indirect impact on landscape.”[2]
National policies in all these areas have long been influenced by European Union regulations, directives and recommendations, yet EU policies almost totally ignore the landscape thereby making the integration of landscape into national policies into an additional hurdle. Were landscape to be a focus of EU policy its integration into national policies and legislation would become straightforward.
Furthermore, the holistic nature of a landscape approach at EU level would provide the opportunity to link policy areas that are otherwise treated in isolation; to make EU policies more accessible and comprehensible to citizens; to contribute to many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and provide the basis for national, regional and local landscape strategies, which can combat and mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss and strengthen cultural identity.
[1] See Preamble to the 2016 Amended version of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention.
[2] Landscape Convention Article 5d General Measures
The LE:NOTRE Institute collaborates closely with the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS) to generate knowledge and experience on integral landscape approaches and the role of planners.
We form a network with organisations that support sustainable landscape change, such as IFLA-Europe and the European Association of Landscape Architecture Students, ELASA.