Dear Delegates, Presidents and Secretariats of National Associations,
Please find below a message from our IFLA Europe President Katerina Gkoltsiou.
“Landscape associates people and place, connects nature and culture, is loud with dialogues, with story lines and the language of landscape is our native language” (Anne Whiston Spirn, 1998). When we break this association, then anomalies happen and humankind has to deal with natural disasters, cultural damage, innocent people lose their lives, natural habitats tend to become extinct.
2024 was one of those difficult years that we had to show tremendous courage to enhance our common understanding that we are here all together for the welfare of the profession and the prosperity or our landscape and nature. As Sylvia Crowe described in 1957, landscape architecture is a profession whose greatest task is to heal. The ability to heal and the power of landscape makes this profession unique. As such the specificity of the European Region of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA Europe) is that it brings people together with an eagerness to bridge all their differences and to work collectively for landscape and nature.
On behalf of the IFLA Europe Executive Council, I would like to thank all our members and staff for their support and contribution to our Federation and to the profession, but also our sponsors for helping us to realize many of our projects and ideas. During the past 12 months we have tried to increase the visibility of IFLA Europe, to empower the collective spirit of our members, to strengthen the relations with sister organizations, the European Union, and the Council of Europe and to ensure financial and governmental stability. Thanks to the volunteer and endless work of our working group chairs and members, the inspiring work of our Executive Secretary and the safeguard of our Financial Manager, all our actions to be more active and extrovert for a greener, more inclusive, and sustainable future materialized.
For next year, the IFLA Europe Executive Council aims to continue the good work and based on the Action plan 2024-2025 to enhance the visibility of our profession, to promote the work of Landscape Architects, to work more closely with other organizations to confront the most important environmental and social challenges.
I would like to thank you all for your support and commitment. My warmest wishes for a wonderful festive season and Happy Healthy and Peaceful New Year!
Katerina Gkoltsiou,
President of IFLA Europe
