ASLA Declaration on Environment and Development

The following principles reflect the fundamental and long-established values of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Many of these principles were re-emphasized in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

· The health and well-being of people, their cultures and settlements; of other species; and of global ecosystems are interconnected, vulnerable, and dependent on each other.

· Future generations have a right to an environment with at least the same qualities and quantities of environmental assets as present generations.

· Long-term economic progress and the need for environmental protection must be seen as mutually interdependent.

· Environmental and cultural integrity must be maintained even while sustaining human well-being and the level of development needed to achieve it.

· Human harmony with the environment is the central purpose of sustainable development*, ensuring health for both nature and humankind.

· In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection and ecological function must be integral parts of the development process.

· Developed countries must acknowledge the responsibility that they bear to pursue internal and international sustainability in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment.

* For the purpose of this document, the term "sustainable development" is defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the future."

Since the landscape encompasses the basic processes that support life, meeting human needs require a healthy landscape. Since the landscape is a living complex, always in the flux of growth and decay, a healthy landscape requires ongoing regeneration. There is no sustainability without regeneration. Nurturing the processes of regeneration and self-renewal in the world's healthy landscapes and reestablishing these in the vast areas of the world's degraded landscapes are fundamental purposes of the profession of landscape architecture.

1/Declaration on Environment and Development

The following objectives provide a conceptual framework for the implementation of sustainable development and a strategic direction for the ethics, education, and practice of landscape architects.

Landscape architects commit themselves to:

· Accept responsibility for the consequences of their design, planning, management and policy decisions on the health of natural systems and cultural communities and their harmony, equity and balance with one another.

· Generate design, planning, management strategies, and policy from the basis of the cultural context and the ecosystem to which each landscape belongs at the local, regional and global scale.

· Develop and specify products, materials, technologies and techniques which exemplify the principles of sustainable development and landscape regeneration.

· Seek constant improvement in their knowledge, abilities, and skills, in their educational institutions, their professional practice and organizations, to more effectively achieve sustainable development.

· Actively engage in shaping decisions, attitudes and values that support human health, environmental protection, landscape regeneration and sustainable development.

2/Declaration on Environment and Development

The following strategies offer more specific guidelines for the implementation of sustainable development objectives by the landscape architecture profession. These should be applied in every aspect of professional work, including internal workplace culture, professional consulting and volunteer activities.

· Anticipate the long-term consequences of landscape architectural design, planning, management and policy in order to equitably meet the developmental, environmental and cultural needs of present and future generations through the use of long-range, comprehensive approaches and inclusive processes.

· Use solutions which solve multiple problems in order to realize efficiencies which recognize the magnitude and scale of challenges.

· Actively participate in global partnerships to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem and its human cultures.

· In developing landscape architectural design, planning, management and policy projects, identify and involve stakeholders -- both communities and individuals -- in helping to make decisions which affect their life and future; ensure that they have appropriate access to relevant information, presented in an understandable form; create opportunities for them to contribute to solutions.

· Favor prevention over mitigation.

· Through the design and planning of places, encourage the adoption of healthy, environmentally sound and responsible lifestyles and attitudes by people who inhabit or use them.

3/Declaration on Environment and Development

· Foster biological and cultural diversity. Strive to maintain, conserve, or reestablish the integrity and diversity of biological systems and their functions.

· Heal, regenerate, restore, reclaim and nurture degraded ecosystems as part of the landscape design and planning process. Strive to restore diversity and a sense of place. Commit to the use of indigenous and compatible materials and plants and the creation of habitat for indigenous species of animals. Avoid the use of plants which are known to be invasive to indigenous ecosystems.

· Respect and incorporate the cultural values of clients, users and affected communities; protect and conserve culturally meaningful places, structures and artifacts.

· Recognize that other animal species are essential components of ecosystems and their functions; conserve their existing habitats; and recreate habitat where it has been destroyed.

· Ensure that activities support rather that damage the environment within or beyond the limits of the site. Commit to solving problems within the site; don't transfer problems or postpone solutions.

4/Declaration on Environment and Development

· Develop and use technologies -- high, low and indigenous -- that are appropriate for the ecosystem, the culture, and the project's maintenance and management; favor indigenous technology, materials and techniques.

· When development is part of a project, ensure that the resulting construction is of the highest quality, that site protection is integral to the project, and that low impact construction technology is used during all phases of the process - from initiation all the way through site restoration.

· Specify materials and products which are non-toxic both in their final form and in their production process; favor recycled products and products which can be recycled or reused.

· Produce designs and specify products or materials which curtail further loss of endangered or threatened species, non-renewable resources, or ecosystems.

· Specify materials and products which are designed to last; design structures which are easy to maintain, and flexible, in both their current use and/or their eventual transformation.

· Use renewable and sustainable energy sources and ensure efficient energy use.

· Treat all site components -- soil, rock, water, and vegetation, as resources, not waste products; where waste exists, reuse, recycle and transform waste materials.

5/Declaration on Environment and Development

· Advance the practice of sustainability through generous and proactive sharing of knowledge and experience within the profession, to related professionals and organizations, to clients, decision-makers, community leaders and citizens.

· Build networks between professional, political and academic communities that expand multi-disciplinary cooperation and teamwork in order to exchange information which furthers environmental responsibility and sustainable development and supports cooperative, complementary, non-competitive approaches to these endeavors.

· Engage in or contribute to research which results in sustainable and equitable design, planning and management processes, techniques, and products; distribute this research broadly and promptly.

· Use and improve forecasting, monitoring, assessment and auditing of environmental impacts.

· Actively seek and acquire new knowledge, abilities and skills; further existing knowledge, abilities and skills; and improve practices that apply the concepts of sustainable and equitable development and landscape regeneration.

6/Declaration on Environment and Development

· Create awareness of sustainable development issues among the public, clients, all levels of government, students, and organizations and institutions involved in environmental protection and development. Develop and share information which helps define the issues or contributes to solutions that focus on sustainable and equitable development.

· Join with other organizations and groups to more effectively advocate and advance sustainable and equitable development and landscape regeneration concepts.

· Encourage the formation of new economic measures that foster cultural and environmental resources; and identify, develop and encourage economic and other incentives for the preservation, protection, restoration and regeneration of these resources.

· Strengthen and upgrade existing environmental legislation, regulation, standards and guidelines and encourage the enforcement of these measures. Support and contribute to the use of environmental impact assessment for proposed activities that are likely to have a significant impact on the environment.

· Propose, develop and contribute to new laws, regulations, standards and guidelines where these measures would advance sustainability and landscape regeneration.

7/Declaration on Environment and Development

Questions? Comments? Let us know at scahill@asla.org