President's Message: October 2022

IFLA-APR has yet to hold its first meeting since the Gwangju 2022 Congress, which is expected to take place on October 31st. Committees and working groups will present their goals activities for 2023. Please stay tuned for the upcoming events! For the last 2022 Talk & Share, we are grateful for inviting Misato Uehara to share Japanese experience in combating climate crisis.

The 2022 AAPME Award has successfully concluded. I would like to extend my gratitude to all the judges, your dedication and unwavering support have helped nurtured new landscape architects, whom I believe will prosper in the coming years. Lists of awarded entries have been compiled in the 2022 E-book. I would also like to highlight the great work of Climate Change Working Group, Claire Martin’s focus on adapting and innovating the professional discipline is remarkable. Her proposal of nature-based solution is an inspiration to us all.

We are also strengthening the cooperation among the committees to enhance their influence. EAA, CER, FBP, and PPP will be working on the annual plan and activities for 2023, and we especially appreciate and look forward to the cross-over cooperation to strengthen and deepen the strength and effectiveness of APR.

With the relaxation of lockdown policies, we believe that in the last quarter of 2022 or spring of 2023, we will be able to fly around and exchange views and observation of landscape professionals, lectures, forums, and exchanges....... We also expect that all member organizations will make full use of the experts and scholars of APR to conduct concrete exchanges.

The Russian-Ukrainian war has indeed strengthened the global community’s adaptation towards sustainable energy and wise production and utilizations. I have just returned from a visit to the 2022 Floriade Expo in the Netherlands, where I have participated for 20 consecutive years, including the Green City Forum, and in the face of the new mission of carbon neutrality in 2050, this exhibition is completely different from the previous model of exhibition. The themes are based on the Smart City/Circular City/Energy Neutral City. The exhibition presents a high degree of experimental spirit of landscape planning and design and intelligent horticultural science, especially in greening, green energy, green architecture, "green materials" and "green living", weak architecture and negative architecture (proposed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma) are also linked to the full range of our landscape profession in energy saving, recycling and living welfare. We hope that the next meeting will have a more profound discussion on how to integrate this issue into the education curriculum, professional practice, and the integration of green industry and industry.

This is my brief report to the APR region, I believe that through our concerted efforts to move towards a new century of carbon neutrality.

Regards,