Urban Thinkers Campus 2024

The West Midlands National Park Lab has been selected to run the Urban Thinkers Campus in Birmingham UK, in collaboration with UN Habitat and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).

This Urban Thinkers Campus, one of a series of international events organised for United Nations Habitat, addresses the protection, planning and management of the everyday landscape. While some special landscapes are protected under existing conventions, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Convention or the Convention on Biological Diversity, these instruments do not provide a comprehensive approach to landscape policy, planning, protection and management, nor recognise landscape as the infrastructure upon which we depend - the very bedrock of society.

This event "Towards an International Landscape Convention - Rethinking Land Use" is part of a larger movement to establish an International Landscape Convention (ILC) to provide a framework for the protection, management, and planning of landscape worldwide. The event is open to staff and students interested in every aspect of urban living; health, economics, planning, sustainability, technology, governance, design etc.

Speakers include Jennifer Lenhart (WWF Cities), Gulnara Roll (United Nations-Environment Programme), Roger Mortlock (CPRE), Dame Fiona Reynolds (Former DG National Trust), Andrew Rudd (United Nations-Habitat), Rachel Fisher (DEFRA), Daisy Narayanan (The Crown Estate).

The event will be online on 3rd October and hosted at Howells Architects, Birmingham on 4th October. Please see here for further details and agenda.

Organised by Professor Kathryn Moore