Publicomos

Réf.

43050

Type

conference item

Titre

Panel 8. Paper 8.1 Tourism, Dams and Greed: Lessons from the destruction of a rural cultural landscape in Crete

Langues

English / French

Auteurs

Chifos, Carla

Lieu de publication

Charenton-le-Pont

Pays de publication

France

Maison d'édition

ICOMOS

Date

10/2019

Titre de conférence

ICOMOS 2019 Advisory Committee Scientific Symposium - Rural Heritage - Landscapes and Beyond

Lieu de conférence

Marrakesh, Morocco

Date de conférence

17 October 2019

Mots-clés

protection of cultural landscapes / dams / water management / cultural tourism / environmental factors / deterioration / threats / governance / labels / case studies / cultural landscapes / cultural policy / social aspects / management / legal protection / causes of deterioration / agriculture / sustainable development / agricultural landscapes / land use plans / lists / rural heritage / rural landscapes / strategy

Pays mentionnés

Greece

Monuments et sites

Island of Crete, Greece

Résumé en anglais

Four thousand years of shaping the landscape, developing sustainable agricultural practices and products, and forming a symbiotic relationship with ecological systems in the Aposelemis Valley of Crete has been disrupted due to the building of a large dam in the heart of that landscape. The politics and decision-making that resulted in the building and implementation of this dam are already documented and analyzed in a recent paper (Chifos, et al, 2019). This paper re-examines what happened in this Valley from the perspective of the cultural/heritage advocates and where the barriers to protecting and maintaining this landscape were and still are. This thriving rural landscape with five inhabited old villages, was recognized as a Natura site, a Ramsar site, was experiencing new archeological finds from Minoan, Roman, and Venetian eras, as well as being championed by local cultural associations, an agricultural cooperative, active farmers and shepherds, and environmentalists. Every such place cannot become a designated cultural landscape through UNESCO, IUCN or other international or national programs. It is not clear that such designations would have stopped the momentum of this water resource management outcome. How can active living traditional rural landscapes survive conflicts with the demands of hyper-tourism, urban growth, EU policies, and centralized governance? This analysis of the Crete case provides an opportunity to identify the weaknesses and world views that left this rural landscape vulnerable to such destruction. Local and regional strategies, as well as the role of local decision-making, that could have prevented or lessened this destruction are discussed, contributing to the ongoing search for how to empower active living rural cultural landscapes to co-exist in a world of rapid change.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/2m2t-s424

Document joint

Panel 8. Paper 8.1 Tourism Dams and Greed_ Lessons from the de.pdf

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)