Landscape parks in Flanders (Belgium): a new and innovative instrument for landscape care

In 2021, the Flemish Government decided to recognise for the first time a number of National Parks and Landscape Parks. The Flemish Land Agency was assigned to organise the designation of the landscape parks. This paper presents how this process took place, organised in two parallel tracks. The first track was an area-based approach with an emphasis on bottom-up initiatives and cross-sectoral cooperation. The designation process itself was organised as a call and a two-stage procedure in which an expert committee played a key role. The second track elaborates the legal basis for the parks and their governance, and a broader framework for transversal landscape care. Finally, both tracks are discussed in the light of the way the Landscape Parks in Flanders introduce innovative ways to implement the principles of the European Landscape Convention.