This Congress has been organised under the framework of the LandLife project, which began in 2011, and is an opportunity to boost land stewardship, a conservation strategy based on the co-responsibility of land users and landowners to manage and protect land and natural resources, both at the regional and European level.

During the last three years the LandLife partners have been working on the implementation of communication and training actions that promote the idea that only understanding the importance and the inherent values of landscapes and nature for our lives will allow us to conserve the diversity and richness of habitats and ecosystems and thereby ensure that future generations can also enjoy them.

The Congress name - Land: quality of Life - reflects the need to find a sustainable balance between preserving different land uses and recognising the value of different human activities, and the need to preserve the natural environment, showing how landowners and users, public and private organisations, and civil society all have a key role to play in nature and biodiversity conservation.

The Congress, as the culminating event of the Landlife Project, comes just as a new period of European conservation policy is opened with the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020.

The Congress aims to address these new challenges by presenting not only the main results of the LandLife project, but also by sharing experiences and exchanging knowledge on land stewardship, nature and biodiversity conservation and natural resource management through workshops, round tables and poster presentations.

The Congress is the starting point for a new European network that will further develop land stewardship in Europe. During the Congress, the Barcelona Declaration on Land Stewardship will be elaborated and signed. The Declaration will define the Vision and Mission statement through a collaborative process that will help to identify synergies between actors with the aim to work together for the promotion of land stewardship both at the regional and European level.