The celebration was established in 2017 by the Council of Europe (CoE), as an initiative by the Polish government’s environmental protection agency (GDOŚ), public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The agency's spokesman Piotr Otrębski told journalists that this year, a wide range of organisations and institutions, from national parks through local authorities to schools and universities, have been staging landscape-themed events, such was walks, lectures and competitions since the start of this month.
By mid-October, more than 100 such events had taken place nationwide "and new ones are being held all the time, with several dozen projects planned for October 20 alone,” Otrębski added, as quoted by the state PAP news agency.
The date marks the anniversary of the day when the European Landscape Convention was signed in 2000 by CoE member states in the Italian city of Florence.
This year’s motto is “open landscapes,” which “invites us all to reflect on the damage being done by the fragmentation of spaces and the fencing of land,” Otrębski said.
Such practices create "an array of disadvantages, both in terms of transport and visual aesthetics, and negatively affect human relationships,” he added.
“We are also drawing attention to the problem of the loss of natural open spaces, which are extremely important environmentally,” Otrębski told a news conference.
International Landscape Day celebrates natural spaces as a boon to human well-being, both in the countryside and in the cities, as well as a way to boost biological diversity and help protect people against floods, among other functions, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP