Rep. n° 02/2024

Paris, March 8, 2024. The Secretary-General and founder of the Slovak NGO Servare et Manere Mr Marek Sobola today, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, handed over the Servare et Manere highest award to Her Majesty Empress Farah Pahlavi, Shahbanou of Iran. By awarding the Tree of Peace Memorial Plaque, Servare et Manere expresses its highest gratitude to eminent personalities, governmental and non-governmental organizations who have contributed immensely to the spread of ideas of understanding, friendship and unity among nations. Her Majesty Empress Farah Pahlavi, Shahbanou of Iran is a strong advocate of peace and deeply cares about the protection and preservation of nature.

During the inspiring and interesting conversation, both actors mainly discussed cultural topics as well as landscape architecture. The tradition and style of garden design and art represented by Persian gardens has influenced garden design from Andalusia to India and beyond. Since its inception, Persian garden art has tried to imitate the idea of the Garden of Eden. This historical garden heritage is very rich and has been preserved until today. That’s why up to nine Persian gardens scattered throughout Iran were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011! Marek Sobola, whose profession is landscape architecture, therefore brought the book “Parky a Sady v Žiline” (Parks and Orchards in Žilina) to Her Majesty as one of his gifts, of which he is a co-author.

Her Majesty also opened the topic of the possibility of implementing the Tree of Peace initiative in some African countries, such as the Kingdom of Morocco or in the Arab Republic of Egypt, which has an extremely rich history, not only in construction, but also in garden art. Africa is the only continent where not a single Tree of Peace is growing yet.