Landscape Public Participation Tools (LPPT)
The European Landscape Convention (ELC), ratified by the Greece in 2010 (Law 3827), defines the landscape as a common good that affects the well-being and quality of life of citizens, who must be officially involved in its design and management. In Greece, to date, there is neither a comprehensive strategy for landscape management nor appropriate institutional tools for citizen participation, which is done indirectly partly through spatial planning and environmental licensing procedures.
The LPPT project aims to contribute to the abovementioned needs, bringing to the fore the importance of landscape management and citizen participation. By creating an online toolkit to facilitate participatory landscape design and by implementing selected tools in two pilot areas as well as formulating proposals for inclusion of participatory processes in policies affecting the landscape, LPPT aims at the democratization of decisions at the local level and the implementation of the ELC in Greece.
The project focusing on civil society organisations and researchers that work on the fields of environment, spatial planning and other sectors that impact on landscape. At the local level, it is addressed at the authorities and communities in the two pilot areas; Prespa in collaboration with the Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) and Messinia, with the support of the Captain Vassilis and Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation (CVF). At the national level, it is addressed to authorities involved directly or indirectly with landscape management.
MedINA, having 12 years of experience in landscape issues, will undertake national policy level activities as well as the creation of an electronic toolkit for participatory landscape planning. SPP will implement the participatory landscape design study in Prespa with MedINA’s support and will formulate policy proposals for relevant authorities. The CVF will support MedINA in implementing a participatory workshop on landscape change in Messinia.
