Students:Memorandum

Reffering to the European Landscape Convention that clearly states that:

"Landscape" means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors;
"Landscape protection" means actions to conserve and maintain the significant or characteristic features of a landscape, justified by its heritage value derived from its natural configuration and/or from human activity;

and according to which each party undertakes:

to recognise landscapes in law as an essential component of people’s surroundings, an expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage, and a foundation of their identity;
to establish procedures for the participation of the general public, local and regional authorities, and other parties with an interest in the definition and implementation of the landscape policies mentioned in paragraph b above;

We, students of the international OSPoS study program have udertaken the project under 2011 Summer school that included:

exploration the case study of the Usti nad Labem region with special focus on Hora Svaté Kateřiny
investigated problems of the brown coal mining industry associated with the Československé armády quarry
listen to the lectures of regional personalities
have undertaken the role play task within which we represented regional stakeholders:
have written SWOT analysis of the region from the point of view of these groups
realized the negotiation process to agree on common priorites as expressed in common SWOT analysis, and identified shared views and conflict issues
designed the vision of the regional development
and last, but not least, have developed personal relationships to the region and its inhabitants.

Thus, we have fulfilled the goal to "establish procedurse for the participation of general public", and expressed it in our roel play game with concrete outcomes that were introduced to real regional representatives. Information and experience that were developed n this purpose, we thus openly offer to anybody interested in the regiona and its problems.