The International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes (ISCCL) is an International Scientific Committee (ISC) of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites.  First established in 1971, the ISCCL welcomes the membership of experts in cultural landscapes from both ICOMOS and IFLA, the International Federation of Landscape Architects.  Members of the Committee have backgrounds in a wide range of related fields, including heritage conservation, landscape architecture, landscape history, planning, law, and ecology among others.

Our Vision

As a collaborative group of researchers and practitioners, we bring our wide range of disciplines, knowledge areas and cultural diversity to bear on the issues of cultural landscapes.  Our formal role is to fulfill ICOMOS’s consultative role in the World Heritage Convention (1972) with respect to cultural landscapes, however, this is only a portion of our work.  Beyond World Heritage, we study, research and apply cultural landscape knowledge, theories and concepts, working to ensure technology transfer around the world.  We share expertise and best practices, and improve the documentation, preservation, management and inclusivity of the tangible and intangible values of cultural landscapes.

Sections of the Great Wall of China are very steep, following the ridge line of the mountains in this region. The restored Mutianyu section today is 2.25 km in length. (Brabec 2017)

ISCCL History

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) was established in 1965, in response to the need for an international body in association with the Venice Charter (1964). It was not until 1971 that the ISCCL was first established with an initial focus on gardens as heritage sites.

In the early years the ISCCL was called the International Committee on Gardens and Historic Sites. Its first president, René Pechère, was a widely respected landscape architect from Belgium, concerned with the protection and management of historic gardens within the larger field of heritage conservation.

The Committee is well known for its work on the ICOMOS Florence Charter on Historic Gardens (1982), which at the time was innovative for the recognition of the dynamic plant assemblages in historic gardens as a form of ‘monument’.   However, the broadening of focus and the name of the Committee to cultural landscapes in 1999 reflected a changing understanding of the role of landscapes in culture and heritage, and as the link between humans and nature.

Today, cultural landscapes are defined in the Operational Guidelines (UNESCO 2019) as cultural properties that represent the combined works of nature and of people. “Cultural landscapes are cultural properties and represent the “combined works of nature and of man” designated in Article 1 of the [World Heritage] Convention. They are illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by their natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal.” (WHOG, Annex 3, 47, 2019)

Cultural landscapes are increasingly understood as complex systems where cultural relationships are developed within an ecological context, recognizing the mutual and reciprocal influence of culture and nature. Currently, three main categories of cultural landscapes are recognized:

  • designed landscapes created intentionally by people;
  • organically evolved landscapes, that may be
    • a relict or fossil landscape, where evolution of the landscape came to an end while its distinguishing features visible in material form; or
    • a continuing landscape, where the cultural landscape today is a living place with roles in contemporary society, associated with traditions, evolution is still in progress and significant material evidence is present
  • associative cultural landscapes that have “powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent” while the material evidence of evolution is exhibited. (WHOG, Annex 3, 10 (iii), 2019)

Oral History Initiative

In 2021, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Committee, two Committee members created an Oral History Initiative.  Maya Escudero Ishizawa and Marike Franklin began the process of interviewing long time members of the Committee to gain their perspectives on the changing organization itself, as well as the changing concept of cultural landscapes.