HERITION

Our shared cultural heritage in protected natural areas is a treasure. But how do we protect it for the future while also making it a dynamic part of our sustainable tourism economy?

Herition is a collaborative project that tackles this challenge head-on. Across Europe, natural protected areas are home to remarkable cultural heritage, from ancient monuments and traditional architecture to intangible heritage and local customs. However, managing this heritage sustainably requires more than just conservation. It demands a new approach that brings together diverse voices and perspectives.

We believe that the best way to protect our heritage is to involve everyone. That’s why we’re creating new models for participatory heritage management that bring together public authorities, private heritage owners, local communities, and tourism operators. Through interregional cooperation, we’re learning from each other’s experiences and adapting successful practices to our own contexts.

Our project builds on lessons learned from previous European initiatives such as Interreg ZEN, Innocastle, and Share. These projects revealed a critical insight: sustainable heritage management requires open, democratic, and transparent approaches. Local communities, who are emotionally connected to their cultural and historic assets, must have a genuine voice in decisions about how their heritage is used, preserved, and promoted.

Our approach is holistic, focusing on key areas to build a more resilient future for our heritage:
• Digitization: Making our cultural assets more accessible to everyone, everywhere.
• Participation: Giving local communities a real voice in how their heritage is managed and preserved.
• Innovative Financing: Developing new and sustainable ways to fund heritage projects.
• Mobility and Accessibility: Ensuring that everyone can experience and enjoy our cultural treasures.

HeriTION addresses the major challenges of cultural heritage enhancement and its relationship with natural heritage, with high transferability potential to many EU territories. The project promotes transparent policies and open participatory processes, enhances tourism potential and seeks to reverse abandonment. It involves local communities and promotes sustainable approaches and innovative financing models for a more revitalised heritage that needs to find new models of use and conservation that are less dependent on public funds.