It bears reminding that the International Conference in Saint-Petersburg (Russia) and Uppsala (Sweden) took pace from 11.06.2012 to 16.06.2012 under the sponsorship of the «EFLA regional congress». The conference was originally conceived and supported by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University, and the European Federation of Landscape Architects and St. Petersburg city administration.

 The conference was attended by 307 representatives from 41 countries - America, New Zealand, Japan, China, France, Russia, Portugal, Turkey, Germany and other countries.  It is of great importance that Ukraine was represented at such a large-scale event. Unfortunately, the only Ukrainian representative at the conference was Svetlana Volkova.

The Russian part of the international conference was held at the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg...

Kanunnikova Larisa (The Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of St. Petersburg), Nigel Thorn (President  of the EFLA), Volftrub Taisia Iosifovna (President of the ALAROS), Ignatieva Maria (Professor of the SLU, Uppsala)  officially opened the event.

The opening ceremony was followed by two busy days, full of interesting reports.

Report of Ignatieva Maria and Andrei Bashkirov "Using the principles of eco-design to create a sustainable and interactive environment within the city (Novoe Devyatkino)."

Report - "Cemetery as a park: heterotrophy of the Nature of a large cemetery in the city of Riga. Reporter Helena Gutmane (Latvia).

Meaningful and noteworthy were reports of Nency Rottle (USA) "Urban green infrastructure and climate change: from global to local " and Naoko Fugita (Japan) "The importance of planning and location of religious relics for green infrastructure."

Reporter Olivier Damee (France) "Public transport and green infrastructure: a new city for its inhabitants: the example of French trams"

In the report "The Green River of Brataevo" a common Russian-Dutch project was presented, in development of which took part - Moscow Architectural Bureau "Ampir" (headed by Taisia Iosifovna Volftrub) and the Dutch Centre of Landscape Architecture Okra (OKRA).

"Restoration of the Summer Garden - the oldest public garden and green heart of St. Petersburg" - a report was prepared by Olga Cherdantseva, Irene Miller, Mary Ignatieva.

The report "Idealism and practice of public participation in the context of growing economic pressure. Exploration of Gdansk coastal areas" was detailed, relevant, presentable, and aroused a great interest and corresponding questions. Reporters: Magdalena Rembeza, Tomasz Rozwadowski (Poland).

The report was followed by an intermediate stage of the conference between St. Petersburg and Uppsala - a discussion which was held on a ferry at the time of journey from Finland to Sweden.

The conference, which had finished at 11 p.m., came to its end by Swedish and Russian welcoming and symbolic songs of organizers under the arches of the conference hall «Vikinga». 

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