Conference aims and objectives
The Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape (PECSRL) is one of the most stable European networks of landscape researchers. It was established in 1957 at an inaugural conference held in Nancy, France. Initially, it consisted mainly of historical geographers, but during the last few decades its membership has diversified to include ecologists, social scientists, rural planners, landscape architects, human geographers, physical geographers, historians, archaeologists, landscape managers, as well as other scholars and practitioners interested in European landscapes. Members undertake both fundamental and applied research on all aspects of the rural landscape or have a position in landscape management or heritage management.
PECSRL covers Pan-Europe which means that it connects researchers from Northern, Eastern, Southern, Central and Western Europe. All together more than thirty European countries take part in PECSRL.
The unifying concept of PECSRL is the past, present and future of European landscapes, relating to landscape research as well as landscape policy and landscape management.
The main objectives of PECSRL are
- to facilitate personal contacts and information exchange between European landscape researchers;
- to improve interdisciplinary cooperation between landscape researchers from various scientific and human landscape disciplines;
- to improve cooperation between landscape researchers and landscape managers;
- to function as a platform for new initiatives in European landscape research and landscape management.
Main fields of activities of PECSRL
- Communication: To improve and intensify communication within PECSRL, using the various possibilities of the internet (E-mail groups, interactive website etc.);
- Organisation: To build up a more (inter)active European research network;
- Network: To enlarge the network in Southern, Eastern and Central Europe;
- New projects: To develop new EU-projects on rural landscapes within the network;
- Application: To find a good interaction between fundamental and applied landscape research in order to develop new answers for the protection, management and development of European landscapes;
- Strategy: To find a good balance between the historical, actual and future aspects of European landscape research.