(ANSAmed) - MADRID, JUNE 12 - ''The City. Living Heritage'' is
the theme of the second regional Euro-Mediterranean Regional
Conference called by the Montada project, set to take place
October 11-12 in Salé, Morocco. Montada organisational sources
have told ANSAmed that the meetings aim to valorise the
historical centres and traditional architecture of Mediterranean
cities from a social, economic and environmental heritage point
of view. The Montada project, part of the Euromed Heritage IV
Programme, co-funded by the European Union with 1.5 million
euros for a three-year period, promotes the protection of
traditional buildings heritage, fostering the appropriation
thereof by civil society representatives, technical experts and
inhabitants.
The sources say that it is ''an appropriation which aims to
integrate heritage as a factor for sustainable growth,
strengthening mutual comprehension and intercultural dialogue
between different generations and genders.''
With lengthy experience in environmental protection in the
Mediterranean through projects carried out by Euromed-Heritage -
Corpus, Corpus Levant and RehabiMed, the Montada programme
intends to draw up a new framework for governance of the area,
thanks to the development of a series of instruments involving
inhabitants and valorising local culture.
In the Salé Euromed conference, institutional representatives
and those of associations working in the area will be presenting
the projects carried out and the results achieved in order to
foster an exchange of ideas and experiences among the six cities
of North Africa taking part in the Montada project. The latter
have very different urban, economic and cultural realities: Salé
and Marrakech for Morocco, Sousse and Kairouan for Tunisia and
Dellys and Ghardaa for Algeria. The meetings aim to create
synergies, promote social cohesion and consolidate the idea of
architectonic heritage as a source of cultural and economic
identity, in order to foster lasting development.
''From a wider strategic point of view,'' say the sources, ''the
conference will make it possible to convey the experience gained
from across the entire Mediterranean area, in order to build
bridges of inter-regional dialogue.'' Among the issues to be
dealt with are the integral restructuring of the city,
governance and participation for the city, and the city as a
teacher, in order to raise awareness of the entire society for
the conservation of local heritage. (ANSAmed).
