ISCCL
ICOMOS-IFLA
WORLD RURAL LANDSCAPES A worldwide initiative for global conservation and management
THE CHARTER OF BAEZA ON AGRARIAN HERITAGE: BACKGROUND AND PRINCIPLES AIMED AT IMPROVING AGRARIAN LANDSCAPES PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT Celia Martínez Yáñez Departamento de Historia del Arte, Universidad de Granada ICOMOS International Scientific Committee of Cultural Routes (CIIC) and Cultural Tourism (ICTC) I+D PAGO Project Milan, November 5th
The Charter of Baeza on Agrarian Heritage and the PAGO Project_BACKGROUND Approved by : _ PAGO Project “The Agrarian Heritage: The cultural construction of the territory through farming activity” (Spanish Ministry of Economy 2011-2014): • Different disciplines (Art History, Architecture, Geography, Anthropology, Agricultural Engineering and Biology) research on the cultural dimension of heritage properties linked to agricultural, forestry and livestock rearing practices.
• Aim: proposing the recognition of a new heritage category to the international community: Agrarian Heritage.
_ Many other renewed specialists on this matter: •
Meeting of Experts on “The Agrarian Heritage: reasons for the cultural recognition of heritage properties linked to agricultural and livestock rearing practices”. International University of Andalusia, Baeza (Jaen, Spain) October 2012.
Charter of Baeza on Agrarian Heritage_GOALS
1) Achieve international recognition of the objective and universal importance of Agrarian Heritage for humanity: •
Irreplaceable contribution to the feeding of humanity (a basic human right)
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Essential role in the sustainable management of landscape
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Essential role in preserving cultural and biological diversity
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Narrow link with life quality, sovereignty and security over food
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Charter of Baeza on Agrarian Heritage_GOALS
2) Increase social and institutional awareness and appreciation of this heritage, which, in spite of its great and obvious value to people, is still hardly considered: •
To achieve this credit, the Charter promotes a stronger and much needed linkage between the universal values and concepts of modernity, progress and solidarity that exist in many areas of the agrarian world…
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… and the agricultural, forestry and livestock rearing practices, and most of all, with farmers, shepherds and livestock handlers, ending the derogatory and unfair concepts associated to them in many countries (underdevelopment, ignorance or low social level).
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Charter of Baeza on Agrarian Heritage_GOALS
3) Convince the international community that the recognition and protection of Agrarian Heritage can be an important tool to: •
Confront some of the essential problems that afflict today society (environmental degradation, unsustainable resource exploitation and hunger).
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Increase the living standards of farming communities, disseminating their essential and truly universal significance as actors who play a multifunctional comprehensive role in: •
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quality food production • environmental protection • land and landscape management the maintenance of rural society and culture
Charter of Baeza on Agrarian Heritage_ DEFINITION “…group of tangible and intangible, natural and cultural properties generated and used for farming activity throughout history”. The number and variety of properties that belong to this heritage is large: • •
Movable properties (growth utensils, transportation devises, storage units, etc.); Immovable properties singularly considered (country estates, orchards, granaries, paddocks, etc.);
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Groups of immovable properties (landscapes, rural habitats, irrigation systems, etc.); Intangible heritage (traditional knowledge and skills, ritual and festive events, gastronomy, craftwork, living human treasures, etc.);
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Natural and genetic heritage (local crops varieties, local livestock breeds, seeds, soils, vegetation and related wild animals).
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Agrarian Heritage_ PRESERVATION, MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT CRITERIA To achieve a system of protection of Agrarian Heritage and agrarian landscapes able to embrace all its manifestations, meanings and types of properties, two basic criteria have to be followed:
1) The cultural value of Agrarian Heritage and agrarian landscapes must be regarded from a holistic, historic, human, productive, sustainable and evolving perspective: •
The activities, spaces and properties to be defended and preserved are specially those based on sustainable and dynamic management traditional practices which are threatened today, among other causes, by highly intensive and industrialized agriculture.
2) Farming activity, and its alive and evolving aspects, must be considered the cardinal attribute of Agrarian Heritage and agrarian landscapes: •
Recognizing this principle in the whole of the protection process (formal identification, preservation, management and enhancement).
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Achieving the irrefutable demand of their in situ continuation and preservation.
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Maintaining the productive dimension of agrarian landscapes, key to preserve their authenticity and for the survival of farmers and their traditional management systems.
These requirements and criteria are the best and basic guarantee for the appropriate understanding of these properties and for their future continuity and transmission.
VEGA OF GRANADA (SPAIN) •
Agrarian landscape of great cultural value whose entire original structure, and specially the irrigation system and land division, remains being the created by Muslims in the middle ages.
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Although it maintains very important tangible and intangible properties, if the productive dimension of the Vega was not respected, if farmers wouldn’t “re-construct” the Vega every year, seeding the fertile lowlands and cultivating the different products again and again, this landscape would be nothing but a wasteland sprinkled with lifeless remains.
Charter of Baeza on Agrarian Heritage_ PROPOSALS Launch public scientific, social and institutional debate on this heritage worldwide and improve the emerging protection of its properties:
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GIAHS Program of the FAO
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World Heritage List: 40 properties whose oustanding universal value (OUV) is mainly linked to the agrarian activity.
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Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: 22 registered elements directly associated to this heritage.
GAPS in the identification, protection and management of the agrarian landscapes included on the World Heritage List 1) 14 of the 33 inscribed agrarian cultural landscapes are devoted to economic crops, such as vine, coffee, tobacco, agave and olive. The nomination files of these landscapes focus on their scenic beauty, on the crops themselves and on their manufactured products, showing: • • •
a high interest to obtain a renowned international brand to strengthen their marketing, the importance of the aesthetic values in the OUV justification, a vision of landscapes as groups of plants rather than the result of an specific form of agricultural management.
2) 20 of the 33 inscribed agrarian landscapes come from developed countries and mainly from Europe…
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GAPS in the identification, protection and management of the agrarian landscapes included on the World Heritage List 3) The maintenance of communities and their knowledge and traditional forms of agricultural management are essential for the survival of agrarian landscapes, but they have rarely been included in their nomination files and management plans. The loss of traditional management systems, rural exodus and conversion of the population to other economic activities are the main risks affecting most of the inscribed agrarian landscapes.
The management of these properties should incorporate measures to improve the quality of life, income and social recognition of these communities so farming can continue to be, now and in the future, a productive way of life.
THE CHARTER OF BAEZA PRINCIPLES CAN BE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE RESOLUTION OF THESE SHORTCOMINGS, NOT ONLY IN THE FIELD OF INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE, BUT ALSO IN THE EVERYDAY MANAGEMENT OF OUR AGRARIAN LANDSCAPES 11
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!! READ THE CHARTER OF BAEZA ON http://www.patrimonioagrario.es/pago/CARTA_DE_BAEZA.html
CONTACT THE PAGO PROJECT AT: jcastill@ugr.es CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT: celiayanez78@yahoo.es
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