Analysis of the Quality of Vegetation on the Island of Palma (Spain)

Introduction

Starting in the 1990s, there was a notable boost in the field of regulations and the development of environmental management instruments. The territory begins to be understood as that space in which social and economic relations are produced (Romero González, 2005).

More integrated, more holistic, or systemic visions are now addressed. These ideas also reach the rural environment, where agriculture is no longer the queen activity, almost exclusive to rural space and society, (Pisan 1994 cited in Mora Aliseda, J., and Castellano Álvarez, FJ, 2005), and where new policies with a multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach are beginning to make their way. Thus, the readjustment of the agricultural sector is combined with economic diversification, the management of natural resources, the improvement of environmental functions, culture, and leisure activities (Mora and Castellano, 2005). This vision of joint management implies the concept of sustainable development and therefore the need to also protect the landscape in an integrated way (Plieninger, et al., 2006).

On the other hand, citizens also demand a greater degree of information and participation in territorial policies, which makes it necessary to govern more horizontally, that is, closer to the citizen or ultimately more democratic (Romero González, 2005). Therefore, the need for a new political and territorial culture began to emerge, which during the second half of the 1990s culminated in the approval of the European Territorial Strategy, Postdam 1999. Its text very well summarizes the objectives of this new focus on land use planning, and that indirectly affects the landscape as a mirror of it. Thus, in article 3 of the text, it is established that territorial policies must achieve balanced and sustainable development, having as basic objectives for this: economic and social cohesion, conservation and management of natural resources and cultural heritage, and competitiveness. most balanced of the European territory. Objectives that suppose a triangle in the territorial management of society, economy, and environment.

But without a doubt, the great leap in terms of landscape, and its conception as a legal asset that must have a specific regulation, is reached a year later in the European Landscape Convention (CEP), developed in Florence on October 20, 2000. The fundamental objective of this convention is to sensitize the Member States to the idea that the protection and improvement of landscapes must begin by providing them with sufficient legal coverage. Until now, landscape, as we have seen, has been frequently cited in-laws, although in most cases it has remained a legally indeterminate concept. In a Europe where landscapes are beginning to be more valued by society and where at the same time they are suffering from progressive degradation, this Landscape Convention represents an important starting point (Zoido, 2001). First of all, the convention defines in article 1. that landscape shall be understood as “any part of the territory as perceived by the population, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors”. In this sense, this definition already gives the landscape its character in a much more global vision of it when considering the human-nature interaction. In addition, the agreement clearly defines, among other commitments, the legal recognition of the landscape as a fundamental element of the human environment, the formulation of its own or specific policies that regulate it, as well as other perhaps more innovative commitments such as the participation of the population in the identification and assessment of their landscapes, the teaching, and training of specialists, or the declaration of transboundary landscapes and their joint management (Zoido, 2000).