A report on Landscape Stewardship Exchange (LSE) in Boka Kotorska is available. The Landscape Stewardship Exchange in the Boka Kotorska Bay was organized by the Quebec Labrador Foundation /Atlantic Center for the Environment (QLF), in partnership with EXPEDITIO, on 21‐27 June 2010.
The aim of the Landscape Stewardship Exchange in Boka Kotorska was to foster a more active involvement of citizens in the landscape protection, management and planning (stewardship), specifically through a direct involvement in the process of identification of cultural landscape values. The LSE programme focused on the area of Boka Kotorska, including the territories of the municipalities of Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi, as an extremely valuable cultural landscape, which is currently facing many challenges and risks related to its protection and planning.
The LSE expert team spent a week in the Boka Kotorska area meeting with different stakeholders in order to obtain inputs from them about the issues the area is facing and share their relevant experience. The LSE included different activities:
- Introductory presentation
- Field visits and meetings
- Cultural Landscape Mapping Workshop
- Public Presentation
Based on the results of the work and exchange with various stakeholders, the LSE expert team came to the following conclusions
- Boka Kotorska is a cultural landscape of outstanding universal value, despite the fact that only one part of it is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List
- People, both residents and those who come to Boka as visitors, are strongly connected with the landscape
- Currently, there are many threats that can have serious negative impact on the values of the Boka Kotorska area. However, there is also a great potential for the development of desirable vision of Boka Kotorska
Key topics that should be part of all processes taking place in Boka Kotorska, especially of those related to the landscape protection, management and planning are:
- Regional approach/strategy – Boka Kotorska as a unique whole
- Nature/ culture – must be viewed and treated as a unique cultural landscape
- Engagement of the community (education/awareness raising)
In light of these findings, the project participants recommend that Montenegro carefully considers taking up the invitation by UNESCO to “re-nominate an enlarged area around the bay as a cultural landscape”. We recommend that the entire Boka Kotorska Bay, including the World Heritage Site and its buffer zone that is still to be defined, is re-nominated as a cultural landscape.
The Report on Landscape Stewardship Exchange in Boka Kotorska can be downloaded here: Landscape Stewardship Exchange_Boka_REPORT (1.28 MB)
We would like to thank to all who took part in various activities of the project and contributed to its implementation.
