Aims

Inside:

  1. Overcome both the traditional inertias in the sector in heritage management (cultural heritage/natural heritage) and their treatment as singular elements isolated from the context, by fostering new conceptual tools that take into consideration the complex correlations that articulate and structure territories (Environment, Cultural Landscapes).
  2. Create sufficient conceptual and instrumental bases to ensure that landscape criteria are present in rural and urban planning and in contexts of the development and construction of infrastructures of different kinds. To do this, it will be a priority to promote:
    a) The drafting of a Census of Cultural Landscapes of the Basque Country, paying attention to their identification and registration (spatial delimitation, meaning, conservation and socialisation);
    b) The creation of a Cultural Landscapes Map of the Basque Country associated with a Geographical Information System.
  3. Organisation of a Public Awareness Programme in the Basque Country on the importance of Cultural Landscapes and creating an awareness among the public of the need for the conservation.

Outside:

  1. One of the most important aspects of the Programme of this Chair will be its commitment to Objective 11 of the “Medium-term strategy for 2008-2013 of UNESCO” that considers Heritage and Landscapes in their triple function, as an opportunity to establish identity itself, a vector for local development and an instrument for reconciliation. In this sense, the “Heritage and Cultural Landscapes” Chair will turn its attention especially towards Latin America, a region in which promoters maintain a well-established tradition of research and cooperation for development.