The State has failed to register any landscape or seascape area on a UN list for protected areas, a Heritage Council conference heard yesterday.
Chairman of the World Commission on Protected Areas, Mr Adrian Philips, said heritage conservation in the next century must focus on a holistic approach to landscape, rather than on the protection of individual sites.
The conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, formed part of a discussion in advance of a Heritage Council submission to the Government on landscape preservation policy expected next year.
Ireland's protected areas, estimated by the UN at less than 1 per cent, must be expanded and strengthened to face the "daunting conservation prospects" of the next century, said Mr Philips.
However, he warned that protected areas, while necessary, were not sufficient to ensure the long-term sustainability of landscape. "There is now a consensus that conservation depends on a combination of protected areas and general policies for environmental protection - and the linking of these two complementary approaches."
The concept of landscape, the environment in which ordinary people live and work, would provide "the means by which societies can address heritage priorities in a more integrated manner in the coming centuries".
The role of public opinion in future environmental protection would be crucial, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, told delegates.
"Ensuring the viability of such local communities can be the best way to ensure the preservation of such related qualities as traditional land use practices, social cohesion and way of life, all of which impact on landscape integrity."
She warned of the effects on landscapes of the emergence of "tourism saturation" on the Aran Islands.