Leading UK landscape
architecture firms are calling on landscape architects around the world to act
in response to climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse.
UK Landscape ArchitectsDeclare, founded by 14 landscape architecture practices and individuals, is
asking for collective action to confront the twin crises of climate breakdown
and biodiversity loss as ‘the most serious issue of our time’.
UK Landscape
Architects Declare said in a statement: "We know that we have just over a
decade to address the twin crises of global climate heating and mass
biodiversity loss, or we risk catastrophic damage to the natural world.
"Meeting the
needs of our society without breaching the earth’s ecological boundaries will
demand a paradigm shift."
Members of UK
Landscape Architects Declare have pledged to design landscapes with a more
positive impact on the environment, which should then be part of a larger
self-sustaining system.
The idea is that a
wide-ranging declaration of intent, followed by action, international
cooperation, and knowledge sharing, will help facilitate this transformation.
The founding
signatories of UK Landscape Architects Declare include Grant Associates, Gillespies, Kim
Wilkie, LUC, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Churchman Thornhill Finch, Townshend
Landscape Architects, J+LGibbons, LDA Design, Studio Engleback, Dan Pearson
Studio, Nigel Dunnett, Landscape Projects and Kinnear Landscape Architects.
"As landscape
architects we are in a position to use our skills towards delivering a climate
positive future and we can directly help protect and enhance biodiversity, and
the wonder of the natural world," said Andrew Grant, one of the initiators
of UK Landscape Architects Declare and director at Grant Associates.
"Landscape
Architects Declare aims to inspire landscape architects to stand side-by-side,
using our collective voice - and action - to create this more sustainable
future. At practice level, Grant Associates recognises the climate and
biodiversity emergencies as the defining challenge of our times. By
acknowledging the urgency of these twin issues, it becomes a moral, as well as
a practical, imperative to address them in everything we do.”
Action points
proposed by UK Landscape Architects Declare include:
- Raise awareness of
the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for practical
action amongst clients co-consultants and supply chains.
- Preserve and protect
existing irreplaceable landscapes and habitats whilst protecting and optimising
areas of functional and biodiverse landscape in all developments.
- Adopt a whole
systems approach to landscape design recognising that soils, bacteria and
mycorrhizal fungi are key factors for ecosystem survival and carbon
sequestration.
- Promote low embodied
carbon, and look to maximise carbon sequestering, responsible and sustainable
use of water and biodiversity net gains in all projects.
- Establish climate
and biodiversity mitigation, adaptation and resilience principles as the key
measure of the industry’s success: demonstrated through awards, prizes and
listings.
