Landscape of the Year - An Ongoing NFI Initiative

Every 2-3 years since 1989, International Naturefriends (NFI), the umbrella organisation of the Naturefriends-movement, has designated a cross-border, ecologically valuable European region “Landscape of the Year”.

The guiding principle of Landscape-of-the-Year initiative is to preserve selected natural and cultural landscapes in Europe and to trigger sustainable border-crossing development. The idea is to interlink economic, social and ecological objectives, for example by promoting sustainable tourism. To achieve this, it is imperative to encourage cooperation and dialogue within the region, involving all stakeholders and the local population.

The objective pursued at the European level is to make the public as well as decision-makers aware of the region selected: This is how Landscape-of-the-Year projects draw Europe-wide attention to the diversity of the continent’s regions while generating awareness of Europe in the regions concerned. Moreover, experience exchange is boosted between previous Landscapes of the Year, building bridges between countries, people and regions. All this is supposed to trigger lasting change, i.e. initiate activities and processes that will show effect beyond a Landscape of the Year’s official duration.