Abstract
How can cultural heritage contribute to the sustainable development of rural areas?
The case-study from Val Venosta presents the first results of the Interreg Italy-Switzerland-project ‘Cross-border governance instruments for the safeguarding and valorisation of the living intangible cultural heritage’. The Venosta valley is located in the north-westernmost part of South Tyrol on the border to Switzerland. The intensive cultivation of apples has led to a mono-sectoral development in some parts of the valley and brought several problematics, e.g. total dependence on the world market, biodiversity-loss and landscape homogenisation.However, in the upper part of the valley, a manifold, small-scale farming system with various different production lines has survived or has even been re-established during the last years. Its spectrum covers both cattle breeding and milk production including the cultivation of grasslands and Alpine pastures as well as the cultivation of a great variety of partly rare seeds and species. This nature-oriented farming is responsible for the preservation of an abundant agro-biodiversity and led to the development of specific customs and traditions over the centuries that constitute a relevant aspect of the local people’s identity. Therefore, we consider them as cultural heritage. The first step of our project is to identify the cultural heritage by means of a community-based bottom-up approach.
To a certain extent, cultural heritage is in a constant state of flux. Favourable conditions are therefore needed to keep the traditions and customs vital and thus the system running. The long-term collobaration of different stakeholders, cross-sectoral approaches and the political willingness are essential to allow cultural heritage to unfold its potential. We will present the so-far collected data and information and will discuss about the potential of our approach in other mountain regions.