The Local Action Plan proposed by the National Institute for Heritage Romania has been approved by the Joint Secretariat. This plan proposes two actions targeting two policy instruments.
The first action proposes the introduction of maintenance and interpretation plans as mandatory in the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) 2021 - 2027. This action targets two challenges identified in the earlier phase of the project in the implementation of the previous ROP 2014-2020:
- A preference for one-off investments, neglecting the role maintenance has to play in the long-term conservation of the historic monuments.
- A limited and often consumerist approach towards the exploitation of historic monuments, with not enough attention to heritage values and the engagement of the local community.
This action has been inspired by good practices such as visiteering and programming from National Trust, as well as the example of MonumentsWatch in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Innocastle Pilot Romania Mikó Castle in Miercurea Ciuc Photo by László Mihály
The second action proposes the development of a monitoring protocol for the National Restoration Plan of Historic Monuments (NRPHM). This action addresses the fact that NRPHM does not currently measure its investment impact. There is currently a limited definition of what might constitute the social, economic and environmental impact of historic monuments in the local communities, and there are limited tools to measure it.
A pilot action has also been approved by the Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat regarding this action. The pilot action is dedicated to testing an analysis methodology with which the National Institute for Heritage Romania aims to monitor the local impact of heritage investments from an economic, social and/or environmental point of view. This pilot has been inspired by various practices, such as the Social Cost Benefit Analysis from the Netherlands commissioned by the Province of Gelderland - which showed that every euro invested in heritage sites results in 2.5 - 4.4 euro for the region.
Read the full Local Action Plan for Romania here.
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Innocastle is a two phase project. In the first phase of the project (June 2018 - November 2020), the project partners exchanged experiences through study visits, research and activated local stakeholders in each region to better understand the needs and challenges. The knowledge collected has been compiled into a final publication, the Baseline Survey, which can be read here.
Now that Innocastle has entered phase 2, each regional partners prepared a Local Action Plan for their region, in which they propose policy changes based on the experience thus far. Until November 2022, each partner will monitor the implementation of these proposed actions.
