POLISH LANDSCAE ACT

POLISH LANDSCAPE ACT

A set of legal provisions of 24 April 2015 “on the amendment of some acts in connection with the strengthening of landscape protection tools”.

The Landscape Act is not a uniform act, but a collection of amendments and provisions introduced to the existing acts concerning, inter alia, protection of monuments, nature protection, spatial planning and development. It is commonly referred to as the Landscape Act or the Presidential Act. It fulfils the obligations imposed by the European Landscape Convention ratified by Poland in 2004.

The Act introduces definitions of advertising, signboard, landscape, cultural landscape, priority landscape. It also aims to organise the visual space of cities and towns, raising the issue of the presence of advertising in public space.

In the statutory definition, cultural landscape is understood as “a space perceived by people, containing natural elements and products of civilisation, historically shaped as a result of natural factors and human activity”. By emphasising the protection of the priority landscape, it defines it as “(….) particularly valuable to society because of its natural, cultural, historical, architectural, urban, rural or aesthetic and visual qualities, and as such requiring preservation or definition of the principles and conditions of its shaping (…)”. Moreover, it defines the notion of legally protected landscape qualities, which include “natural, cultural, historical, aesthetic and visual qualities of the area and related (…) relief, creations and components of nature and civilisation elements, shaped by the forces of nature or human activity”.

The Landscape Act regulates the rules and conditions of locating street architecture objects, boards and advertising devices and fences in public space. The regulations of these plans are to “(….) protect the cultural heritage and monuments, including cultural landscapes and contemporary cultural assets (…)”. In this respect, the Act gives broad powers to municipal councils. It also authorises local governments to adopt a local advertising code, specifying which advertisements and signs may be displayed in a given place. Moreover, it imposes an obligation on voivodship local governments to prepare a landscape audit, defining the areas of priority landscapes in which the street architecture or advertisements may interfere. All designs must comply with the local spatial development plan and other acts of local law, and must not violate the requirements of protection of the natural environment and landscape, including cultural landscape. The Act also obliges local governments to draw up spatial development plans taking into account the needs and objectives of works undertaken in this respect, to conduct analyses and audits (characteristics, recommendation, protection, assessment of qualities and threats) of cultural, national and landscape parks, nature reserves, protected landscape areas, UNESCO World Heritage sites, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Network areas and areas and objects proposed for inclusion in these lists.

The Act also provides for the mode of creating or enlarging a landscape park, liquidation or reduction of the area of a landscape park or a protected area (in cases such as irretrievable loss of natural, historical and cultural qualities and landscape qualities).

[M. G.]

Literature:

Ustawa z dnia 24 kwietnia 2015 r. o zmianie niektórych ustaw w związku ze wzmocnieniem narzędzi ochrony krajobrazu:

http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WDU20150000774 accessed: 3.03.2018