The Importance of Small Towns published by ECOVAST November 2014
Please note that this a large document of 4.7 MB
The Evidence Base (which supports the above document) published by ECOVAST February 2015
This is a summary of:
Small Towns Position Paper dated October 2013
ECOVAST Landscape Identification Guide to Good Practice
Summary: The purpose of this guide is to help the citizens of Europe to understand, to celebrate and to protect the landscape in which they live; and to assist governments in their work to implement the European Landscape Convention. It is 28 pages in length, with the following contents:
Available in English
Agriculture and Forestry: sustaining their future in Europe
Summary: This policy statement was produced by an ECOVAST Working Group in 1997, as the outcome of a sequence of meetings. It is addressed to all policy-makers and practitioners at European, national, regional and local level. It is 30 pages in length, with the following contents :
Available in: English / French / German
Traditional Rural Architecture : A strategy for Europe
Summary: This policy statement was produced by an ECOVAST Working Group in 1996, as the outcome of a sequence of meetings. It is addressed to all policy-makers and practitioners at European, national, regional and local level. It is 15 pages in length, with the following contents :
Summary in English only: full report not currently available
Sustainable Development in Rural Areas: its practical role in Regeneration of the Balkans
Summary:
Proceedings of the ECOVAST Conference and workshop held at FOJNICA, Bosnia & Hercegovina
11 to 13 October 2001
Available in: English in Word format or .pdf format (Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Heritage Trails
A Heritage Trails manual, now out of print, was published in 1997 by Ecotourism Ltd, ECOVAST and PRISMA following the pilot projects in Slovenia and Bulgaria - see Heritage Trails for description of these projects.
ECOVAST has a working group on Rural Architecture, chaired by Rudiger MAUL of ECOVAST Germany - see: http://www.ecovast.org/papers/ecruare.htm
Phil Turner writes:
ECOVAST's logo appears on the new document "Knowing Your Place" about Heritage and community-led planning in the countryside, published by English Heritage in March 2011.
"Community-Led Plans are grass-roots initiatives by local people planning for the future of their village, parish or neighbourhood. They do this by producing a common vision of how their community should look or develop in the future and working together to achieve this throughthe planning system and other means.
Community-Led Plans originated in the countryside, through Village Appraisals, Village Design Statements and Parish Plans. Similar initiatives were subsequently developed in urban areas though town and neighbourhood plans and design statements and market town health-checks. Through its Localism Bill the Government now plans to give renewed impetus to community-led planning through a new generation of Neighbourhood Plans.
English Heritage believes that a community's heritage is fundamental to its individuality, its sense of identity and its future prosperity.Our ambition is to see all Community-Led Plans harness the power of this heritage to benefit local people.
In March 2011 English Heritage in partnership with Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) produced Knowing Your Place: Heritage and Community-Led Planning in the Countryside to help rural communities that are producing, reviewing or updating their plan."
Alongside ACRE and our member organisation, ASHTAV, ECOVAST is pleased to have been involved. Author Sarah Tunnicliffe attended our conference in the Isle of Wight in 2010.