UK signs European Landscape Convention

The UK has signed the Council of Europe's European Landscape Convention [conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/176.htm], which deals with the protection, development and sustainable management of landscape.

Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity Minister, Jim Knight, said he believed the UK was already fulfilling the requirements of the Convention, which is the first to deal solely with landscape and covers the whole landscape spectrum - rural, urban, and peri-urban.

Mr Knight said the Convention would help guide policy development in the normal course of review within individual departments and the devolved administrations.

The European Landscape Convention (ELC) opened for signature in Florence on 20 October 2000.

The Convention entered into force on 1 March 2004. As of 19 December 2005, it had received 20 ratifications with an additional 12 signatures.

The UK Parliament will have 21 days in which to consider whether it wishes to hold a debate on the Convention. Once that process is complete and the Government is satisfied that it fulfils the requirements of the Convention, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [http://www.defra.gov.uk] will proceed with ratification.

If the UK does ratify the Convention, it will enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiry of a period of three months after the date of the deposit of the instrument of ratification.