Relevant drivers and barriers for transforming Heritage Communities into stakeholders of social innovations in rural an marginal areas: a vademecum

This vademecum examines the role of Heritage Communities in the development of territorial commons in rural areas and explores the approaches they adopt to collectively orgnize the preservation of local resources, whether natural, cultural or social. It aims to provide an analysis of the drivers and barriers that influence the development and integration of Heritage Communties into public policy, designed to support the resilience of socio-ecosytems. Ultimately it proposes to explore new research avenues for territorial development to establish new territorial commons. It builds on the work carried out within the INCULTUM research-action project and other SECreTour work packages. In the first section, we begin by reviewing the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on the Values of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention), its principles, key concepts – notably Heritage Communities, which is a central concept throughout the document – as well as its implementation and its articulation with the European Landscape Convention (Florence Convention) and the international frameworks relating to intangible cultural heritage and biodiversity. In the second part, we propose to examine this articulation through the lens of the commons approach and the process of commoning. In the third part, we present an overview of the legal, economic and organizational levers or mechanisms that Heritage Communities can mobilize, illustrated through case studies. We place particular emphasis on tourism as a tool for sustainability, social cohesion and economic benefits for the communities and their region. Finally, in the fourth part, we identify the structural and operational barriers arising from the limitations of applying the Faro principles, the commons approach and the recognition of Heritage Communities.