Background

The “Towards an International Landscape Convention – Rethinking Land Use” Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC), is part of a larger movement to establish an International Landscape Convention (ILC) by UN Habitat, which will provide a framework for the policy, planning, protection and management of landscape worldwide to help address global challenges.

Currently, there is no international legal instrument specifically addressing the policy, planning, protection and/or management of the everyday landscape.  While some special landscapes are protected under existing conventions, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Convention or the Convention on Biological Diversity, these instruments do not provide a comprehensive, integrated or holistic approach, recognise the immense restorative capacity of the land to address global challenges or understand landscape as the bedrock of society, the very infrastructure upon which we depend to survive and thrive. 

The proposal for an ILC aims to provide a framework to see this bigger picture, recognising the cultural, natural, and socio-economic value of land and by promoting collaboration among various stakeholders, including governments, civil society and local communities.