The Florence Charter (ICOMOS 1982) was the first step in the codification of the importance of cultural landscapes (as historic gardens) in the international framework of World Heritage.  However, the groundwork for the acknowledgement of that status and recognition was laid many years before during the creation of ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) and IFLA (the International Federation of Landscape Architects) and their joint committee on historic (later cultural) landscapes.  The understanding of this history is integral to the current status and management of cultural landscapes as World Heritage.  It is also fundamental to understanding constraints that need to be addressed given the quickly developing crisis of climate change, and the long-term sustainability of the reflection of cultural landscapes as the “combined works of nature and man [sic]” (World Heritage Center 2005).”