On September 19-21, 2012, the UNESCO International Conference “The International Protection of Landscapes” took place in Florence on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the first

World Heritage Convention, which has gathered more than 30 experts from all countries, representatives of United Nations Agencies (UNESCO, FAO, UNCCD, UNDP) international intergovernmental bodies, international centers and associations (ICCROM, ICOMOS, IFLA, UNU, ICQ, ITKI,) national and non-governmental associations, universities and local administrators. The conference, organized by UNESCO as Deputy General Manager Francesco Bandarin and the International Traditional Knowledge Institute (ITKI), emphasized what Pietro Laureano (president of ITKI and UNESCO consultant) defined a ” New landscape vision “moving the optics” from monuments to people. ”

To download the COMPLETE PROGRAM of the conference click here

The framework within which the study days were held is that of the evolution of the Cultural Heritage concept for the last forty years, beginning with the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972. During the experience And UNESCO reflection has become more and more evident the inability to protect the heritage separately from the environment and ignoring the knowledge and practices that generated it. The landscape has been defined in the conference just as that close relationship between humanity and the environment that every civilization and community establishes by realizing its own social and productive universe.

Pietro Laureano said in his report: “Cultures, knowledge, traditions, symbolic categories that shape the world we live in. We create and transform the landscape and at the same time molded it. We interpret it as we appreciate it when we recognize it and We do not have the identity of the landscape, we lose ties with the community and the reality and the means to interpret it It is said to be “lost” to those who have lost any reference category “In the landscape lay stories, memories , The signs and representations that form the foundation of belonging to a place. As reported by Prince Carlo of England in the filming session sent for the opening of the conference in which he pledged to promote in all ways the World Bank of Knowledge and Landscape Defense “we can not defend the landscape if traditional knowledge disappears , Only by joining the best of the past and the best of today we can hope for a harmonious and sustainable development. ” For this reason, Ipogea presented, in collaboration with UNESCO, the prototype of a platform hosting the Traditional Knowledge World Bank (TKWB), a constantly evolving database that, using open source tools And by encouraging everyone’s contributions, aims at censoring, describing, protecting and disseminating ancient knowledge and their innovative use as a shared cultural heritage. The conference during the study days showed the concrete and operational use of this optics on non-astronomical landscape for aesthetic discovery but as an instrument to meet the challenges of the global crisis, climate risks, disasters and promote a new welfare-based model Of the peoples. Parallel events at the convention were the meetings of mayors and directors and a working group on the recent earthquake in Emilia. The conference approved the Florence Declaration on Landscape, an official document that initiated the United Nations procedure to reach a new international convention on the landscape.

To download the Florence Declaration on the Landscape click here

To download the intervention of Pietro Laureano click here

To download the intervention of Prince Charles of England click here

The conference. Amphitheater Andrzej Tomaszewski, Auditorium at the Duomo (Florence).

 

The intervention by Francesco Bandarin, Deputy Director of the UNESCO Culture.

Prince Carlo video message transmitted during the conference.