EXPEDITIO was commissioned by SNV- Netherlands Development Organisation to conduct the "Assessment of Cultural Heritage in the Prokletije Area", in the period September-December 2009.
The assessment of cultural heritage in the area of Prokletije is implemented within the project "Protection and enhancement of rural communities and their traditional landscape by strengthening environmental management in the trans-boundary protected areas of the Dinaric mountain range" which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by IUCN, WWF and SNV.
The whole project and the Assessment of cultural heritage are carried out on the territories of Montenegro and Albania. Non-governmental organization EXPEDITIO conducts the part of the project implemented in Montenegro and coordinates the overall project, while the non-governmental organization Albanian Heritage Foundation from Tirana (www.albanianheritage.net ) implements the part of the project in Albania.
In Montenegro, the territory covered by the project includes the municipalities of Rožaje, Plav and Andrijevica, as well as three smaller communities within the territory of the Municipality of Podgorica - Gornje Stravče, Orahovo and Gornji Zatrijebač.
The final aim of the "Assessment of Cutural Heritage in the Prokletije Area" is the protection and enhancement of the cultural heritage of this territory, which contributes to the strengthening of local identity and culture, and their recognition as potentials for development and utilization in tourism, through:
- Identifying all the elements of cultural heritage (immovable-built heritage and movable and intangible heritage)
- Collecting and analyzing high quality and relevant data about the heritage, which will be later made available to the public
- As well as through proposing some concrete activities and projects aimed at supporting the protection of cultural heritage and valuing this heritage as the basis for development in general and for the development of tourism in particular
In the Registry of Cultural Monuments of Montenegro, only six protected monuments from the territory of Prokletije are listed! However, there is no doubt that this area possesses many valuable cultural assets that have not yet been officially identified.
A participatory approach used in the preparation of the assessment has already been used in many fields but it is new in the field of cultural heritage in our area and it implies the involvement of all stakeholders in the process of heritage identification and recognition of its potential. It is important that local people define what they consider as the most valuable part of their cultural heritage and to find out what is their vision regarding the future of that heritage, its protection and development.
