Revitalizing Rural Heritage: MOMAr's Global Impact
When managing heritage in rural and less populated places, the MOMAr project is like a treasure trove of valuable knowledge.
MOMAr means providing strategic thinking to the use of cultural and natural resources, incorporating all the actors involved in its management and creating models of economic and social development and territorial sustainability with them all, fostering the rural areas identity without copying or moving models from other environments, but tailoring them.
The project highlights the existence of territories with problems - depopulation, ageing, no use of resources- whose identity is however marked by a rich heritage, exceptional in some cases - UNESCO heritage - and whose management entities have either not finished defining their models of action in terms of cultural and natural resources or directly borrowed models that do not correspond to the territorial reality.
MOMAr will serve to improve policies and programmes addressing heritage in rural territories, taking into account the peculiarities and cultural identities of places where rurality determinates a mode of action. The inhabitants -who maintain the territories alive- will be a central part of the strategies and new projects designed.
Although since 1965 Europe has recognised that culture is a basic principle in the construction of a European identity based on individual identities, with few exceptions the most unpopulated rural territories in Europe have felt excluded from the programmes in force, due to their inability to address them from an appropriate perspective.
Interreg Europe programme makes possible through MOMAr that a representation of rural territories with singular heritage to think strategically, with a common objective and through a interregional exchange work before addressing the design and execution of actions. It makes also possible to incorporate certain territories and their inhabitants into Europe. MOMAr represents, in summary, the need of rural territories for a specific management of cultural and natural resources impacting the inhabitants and improving their quality of life.
€1,166,742.00
Environment and resource efficiency
The ROP Aragon 2014-2020 gives answer to the main weaknesses that affect the economic and social development of the region.
Investment Priority 6.c of the programme within the Thematic Objective 6 stands for the protection, promotion and development of the cultural and natural heritage.
Specific objective SO6.3.1 concerns fostering the protection, promotion and development of the cultural heritage; SO6.3.2. stands for the protection, development and promotion of natural areas, particularly those of tourist interest.
The province of Zaragoza forms together with those of Huesca and Teruel the Region of Aragon, characterised by an exceptional historical-cultural heritage integrated by all the tangible and intangible assets that present an anthropological, anthropogenic, historical, artistic, architectural, archaeological, paleontological, ethnological, scientific, linguistic, documentary, cinematographic or bibliographic interest besides a rich natural heritage. This richness and diversity is an opportunity to develop tourism and differentiate Aragon. Tourism based on cultural and natural heritage has growth potential, conservation, accessibility and risk prevention being faced simultaneously.
MOMAr can contribute to widen and implement the objective of the TO by promoting the use of resources in a manner that goes beyond "tourism", through new projects and approaches in the local communities focusing on the management of heritage, on people and connected with daily life.
Mehedinti County Development Strategy 2014-2020 aims to the improvement of the living standards of the county inhabitants and to increase the competitiveness of the county, it becoming thus in the long term, competitive and attractive for investments, capitalising local resources and developing a community capable to manage them efficiently and effectively.
There are several priorities of the present County Strategy related to the objectives of MOMAr project. They are the following:
- Priority 5: Increasing energy efficiency and protecting the environment.
- Priority 6: Developing cultural and tourist identity at the Mehedinti county
- Priority 7: Sustainable rural development and better use of resources in the rural environment
- Priority 8: Promoting cross-border cooperation
Mehedinti County comes across different difficulties to implement its Development Strategy in relation with the development of natural and cultural assets
in terms of resources and specialisation in new models of development and management.
In such scenario the MOMAr project offers the opportunity to Mehedinti county representatives to learn about sound and efficient management strategies for valorising the natural and cultural heritage in an integrated way, which can be applied to local heritage through the above mentioned priorities.
The Integrated Regional Operational Programme (IROP) will improve public administration and public services in the Czech Republic, particularly in the areas of education, health care, social services, social inclusion, regional transport, urban development, and culture.
The Thematic Objective and Investment Priority addressed deal with resource efficiency and specifically preservation, protection, promotion and development of natural and cultural heritage.
The current goal is, however, more aimed on restoration and preservation efforts, while the operational phase and managements issues are not much tackled.
The improvement MOMAr project brings to the policy instrument addressed is to develop through it the important topic of heritage management, exploring through new projects management tailored alternatives for heritage resulting in the preservation, protection, promotion and development of natural and cultural heritage, as the measures addressed aim at.
Because of the gradual closing of the current programming period (2014-2020) it is also expected MOMAr to influence the planning of the policy instruments for the following period. The outputs of the project should be used at designing IROP priorities in the next programming period to better focus European funds regarding cultural and natural heritage.
As a consequence of demographic decline and the extraction of gas from the subsoil of Groningen, the province of Groningen has to deal with damaged and disappearing heritage. Groningen heritage includes the UNESCO World Heritage site of “de Waddenzee” (natural heritage), characteristic rural landscapes with monumental churches, monasteries, farms, landscape elements and structures of archaeological value.
The aim of the programme "Heritage, Spatial Quality, Identity and Landscape" is to preserve, restore and develop Groningen identity by developing instruments and projects for preservation and sustainable management of heritage, to develope new heritage and guarding the spatial quality of the landscape. The policy covers 6 tracks:
1- Presenting the build heritage and landscape to residents and tourists.
2- Drafting the cultural-historical values and observing them in relevant policies, including spatial policy: Environmental Vision and Regulation, Municipal Zoning Plans, ‘Landscape Quality Guide’.
3- Introducing new qualities in the landscape while dealing with demographic decline, including transformation of monuments for new functions and careful design of the energy transition.
4- Future proof policies, financing and forms of cooperation.
5- Pilot and demonstration projects.
6- Earthquake area
Participation in MOMAr is deemed strategic for an improved development of policy tracks 3, 4 and 5.
Urban Development Funding of Saxony-Anhalt supports measures of urban renewal in Saxony-Anhalt. This funding program is existing since the 70th of the last century. The instrument addresses all the municipalities in the region, many small municipalities as the north of Saxony-Anhalt is sparsely populated (rural area). Nevertheless, there are also some small towns with less than 12.000 inhabitants. All are benefitiaries of the instrument.
The fund comprises the following 5 objectives:
- Measures for the protection of urban historical monuments
- Urban redevelopment measures
- Measures of “Social city”
- Measures for active town and district centres and
- Measures to support small municipalities for ensuring public service.
Through the Ministry for Regional Development of Saxony-Anhalt participation in MOMAr, it is expected projects concerning cultural heritage management in small municipalities of the region to be developed through the Urban Development Funding. Actions for preservation, development and reconstruction of heritage have been developed so far. Actions focusing on cultural heritage management are expected thanks to MOMAr.
In funding calls for cultural heritage there has been less outflow of funds in rural areas, probably because of the small municipalities lack of professional capacity to participate in the calls.
The funding is launched annually, what possibilitates targeted calls and grants inspired in the experiences learnt in MOMAr.
The Regional Programme Corse 2014-2020 aims to boost economic growth in this region and contributes to achieving at regional level the Europe 2020 targets for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Through the TO and IP addressed, it fosters the promotion and protection of heritage assets from natural and human risks, in order to preserve key resources for the attractiveness and development of the territory.
For that, it supports actions that allow promoting the Corsican heritage in strategic cultural and natural sites, and the development of tourist sites from a perspective of diversification of the activity (lengthening of the season, new customers).
The political instrument highlights a strong tourist identity linked to a rich natural and cultural heritage; a tourism sector that participates to a large extent in the dynamics of regional economic development; the need to reduce dependence on tourism activity to the French clientele only; the importance of integrating the coastal destination with the interior and developing sustainable tourism products and more specific formulas; the relevance of diversifying regional tourism towards sustainable quality tourism and finding new markets through heritage development and seasonal expansion, developing new services for new clients.
MOMAr will allow to expand the policy prism beyond the classic tourism approach, complementing it with the introduction of different management models of applicability to the Corsican heritage.
When managing heritage in rural and less populated places, the MOMAr project is like a treasure trove of valuable knowledge.
The Heritage program of the Province of Groningen organized at Maarhuizen the second meeting of the Heritage Lab.
MOMAr is actively continuing its efforts to disseminate the results obtained from the project.
The Awards rewarded 30 outstanding heritage achievements from 21 countries, including the Via Transilvanica, MOMAr’s good practices from Mehedinti County.
The town of Quinto de Ebro (Zaragoza) launched a new cultural project called “Retrospectiva" (Retrospective) inspired by the knowledge acquired within MOMAr.
During May and June, the lead partner, the Provincial Government of Zaragoza (DPZ), organises free bus tours to discover the lesser-known heritage of the pr
The Provincial Government of Zaragoza, has recorded a compilation of videos in collaboration with its stakeholders to present its good practices.
MOMAr partners celebrated its last partner meeting in the hometown of the lead partner.
The meeting brought together nearly 60 heritage experts and political representatives from five rural areas of Europe in Zaragoza.
It's time to travel to South Bohemia to know more about the progress of one of MOMAr's good practices: Trocnov, the historical open-air museum.