风景园林与国际问题

　　编者按：2007年5月17日，应省风景园林学会理事长施奠东的邀请，国际风景园林师联合会主席戴安妮博士在浙江林学院东湖校区图书馆报告厅作了题为《风景园林与国际问题》的报告。中国风景园林学会和浙江省风景园林学会的部分专家也出席了报告会，报告厅座无虚席。演讲结束后，在校学生与戴安妮进行了现场问答交流，进一步探讨了中国园林行业与园林专业的发展方向。 字串9

　　相关链接：IFLA是“International Federation of Landscape Architects”的英文简称，中文名为“国际风景园林师联合会”。国际风景园林师联合会（IFLA）于1948年在英国剑桥成立，总部设在法国凡尔赛。IFLA是一个民主的、非盈利的、非政治的、非政府的组织，是世界上风景园林行业影响力最大的国际学术组织。

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    What do you think is the most important issue for landscape architects at present? It is not global warming or marine pollution, important though those problems are to sustainability. The most important issue for landscape architects globally is education.

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    In many places in the world demand for landscape architects is growing so rapidly that it is exceeding supply. To address this short supply consultant firms seek trained landscape architects from wherever they can source them in the world.  Anecdotal information from the USA and Russia is that those who need the services of a landscape architect, and cannot get one, will chose the next best skills available. The alternative people chosen may have very little training. Clients are then likely to become dissatisfied with the outcomes and the reputation of the profession is affected. It is therefore very important that the knowledge and skills of those employed should be comparable with the bench mark in the countries landscape architects are working. It is also important that employers and clients are able to verify qualifications. International university accreditation, to establish sound and comparable qualifications,  and professional licensing for ongoing professional quality assurance are therefore now the two most urgent issues for IFLA. 字串5

Growth in demand for landscape architects

　　In the United States the demand for landscape architecture has grown at a rate of 20% in the last two years, and this is expected to continue in the next decade. The topic for this years US Landscape Architecture Month in April was landscape architecture as a career. This was chosen as the theme to try to address the short fall in numbers of graduates. In Russia the demand for landscape architects is rocketing and here in China I understand that there are now 100 education providers training landscape architects but still an unfulfilled demand as new cities are needed for growing populations. I heard a forecast that another 50 landscape architecture schools are expected in the next 5 years. 字串1

　　Consulting firms have been shopping around the globe for staff for places such as Dubai where landscape architecture skills are essential. Rarely do landscape architects advertise in New Zealand or Australia: we have more work than we can cope with. The same is true for India where the economy is healthy and firms compete to gain landscape architecture staff.

Global issues

　　Although communications are speedier and technology continues to assist  our work, our planet faces complex global environmental issues. Climate change is affecting weather patterns, crop production, island nations, cities and species survival. Some of the worlds cataclysmic disasters are associated with climate change, such as floods and massive landslides. The stress placed on scarce resources, particularly clean water, will become even more critical as the worlds population continues to increase.  字串7

　　Our seas are becoming increasingly polluted from uncontrolled discharges and silt washed from the land, damaging corals, fish and bird life. Bio-diversity of species is under pressure from the global spread of Avian virus and pests and diseases which can be benign in one area but devastating in another. Examples of these are numerous: the Argentine Fire Ant in the Pacific, the cane toad in Australia, Eucalyptus in Argentina, opossums, stoats, ferrets, rabbits, rats, gorse? and numerous other pests in New Zealand. Many countries have problems with alien species. Natural disasters also continue. The Tsunami which affected Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India brought massive human devastation as well as landscape destruction. 字串2

　　In Africa there are very few landscape architecture schools, and the few landscape architects trained in other countries desperately need support to make a useful contribution. Yet many of the major environmental impacts are occurring in Africa. There is vegetation and habitat loss, heritage destruction, resource depletion. Landscape architects can and should be making a contribution in Africa to environmental management issues, to city planning and design, to conservation of heritage in cities, to the sustainability of landscapes. 字串8

　　These global environmental problems require wisdom and a concerted effort from those with relevant expertise. While landscape architects do not have the skills and knowledge to solve every environmental threat, we are trained to contribute and collaborate with other professions to finding solutions. The global federation has a role to raise issues, collaborate and share information so that those with similar problems can benefit.