Como vemos el paisaje en el desarrollo rural The cultural landscape is a important factor for rural development in Rioja

1. Cultural landscape, a
rural development
factor in Rioja
Julio Grande
Living cultural landscapes and the
challenge of tourism
6th Seminar of the
UNESCO CHAIR and the UNITWIN-UNESCO Network in
“CULTURE, TOURISM, DEVELOPMENT”

2. It occupies a surface area of 58,927 hectares, with a buffer
zone: 124,374 Hectares
The Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja
occupies an area of 63,000,000 hectares. It is
located in the northern third of the Iberian
Peninsula with one part in the region of La
Rioja (68% surface area), part in the Basque
Country (21%) and part in Navarre (11%).

3. Autonomous Communities
Proposed area

4. The implementation of the world heritage nomination of the La
Rioja and Rioja Alavesa Wine and Vineyard Cultural Landscape
marked a turning point in ¡the appreciation of vineyard
landscapes in our region.
This turning point marks a new era in the attitudes of both the
local population and the stakeholder agencies when dealing with
land planning, local development and protection policies.

5. RURAL AREAS IN CRISIS: They are still losing population
Underemploy
ment Youth exodus
Population
decline and
ageing
Lack of motivation,
apathy
Low professional
qualifications
Lack of leadershipPolitical
neglect
Lack of interest in
community life
Loss of the sense of
belonging. Loss of
identity,
Bad resource
management
Giving up
(Vachon, 2001)

6. THE MAIN VALUE OF THE DECLARATION FOR RURAL
DEVELOPMENT
It serves as an element of territorial revitalisation from a
viewpoint of recovering identity and collective tasks.
It is obvious to the local population, who identifies it and shares
it. It is a synthesis between their past and their present.
It is necessarily linked to it.
It maintains an emotional connection with it.
It is a fundamental part of their quality of life

7. THE MAIN VALUE OF THE DECLARATION FOR RURAL
DEVELOPMENT
The Declaration is a reason for cooperation.
It can only be maintained through collective effort.
It links the territory with the residents, but also to the entire
rural population which has emigrated.
It stimulates an emotional feeling in both local population and
population with ties.

8. FROM A RURAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS THE MAIN
CONTRIBUTION OF THE NOMINATION:
Bringing together wills and efforts around this common task to
recover an intimate and real identity based on territorial reality.
This goes far beyond a simple consensus on the preparation of
the nomination

9. A second value CREATING ADDED VALUE
The social effort of maintaining the landscape must have an
answer in the rating and recognition of local products,
particularly wine.
This effort is not just an aesthetic issue, but a philosophy for
doing things, caring for vineyards and making wines, which
produces a differential value.

10. TOURISM
Wine tourism took off in our territory at the start of the century.
The starting point of wine tourism is winery tours, which
generate greater appeal.
Little by little the public starts demanding more experiences.
This is when the landscape acquires value as a tourist product.

11. TOURISM
A coincidence in time takes place:
• Local population’s rating of its own landscape
• Tourists’ rating of the landscape.
They are two realities which influence each other.

12. The landscape is a HORIZONTAL resource
• It is always present in the eyes of tourists. Wherever you look, there
is the landscape: in the wineries, in the fields, in historical urban
ensembles, in the people. It fills every nook and cranny, like mortar,
bonding together each and every element that comprises it.
• It is not just a visual experience, is an ‘ambience’. Our cultural
landscape creates an ‘ambience’ which is entirely experiential. It goes
beyond a photograph, an image or a taste.
• It is authentic. We do not need to recreate anything. It exists like
that, ‘per se’.
• It is free. Tourists do not pay directly for its enjoyment. They just
come and enjoy it.

13. TWO INTERESTING ASPECTS
A demand for a cultural experience on the world of wine going
beyond a mere winery tour or a wine tasting.
A resource which is easy to access physically and, to a large
extent, intellectually.

14. Some details from our TOURISTS
• 70% are repeaters
• 60% visit wineries but most only one.
• The order in which resources were rated is: food, winery,
landscape, old towns, monuments visited and viewpoints.
• When asked what they had liked the most The answers were:
atmosphere, food, landscape, wine and wine culture.

15. Some details from our TOURISTS Rating the landscape through a
photographic survey.
• Coincidences between the rating of the local population and
visitors.
• Colour factor highly rated.
• Presence of old towns in the landscape highly rated.
• Variety of planes and slopes highly rated.

16. Activities we have carried out:
• Expanding the network of viewpoints
• Developing a network of marked wine footpaths
• Carrying out an inventory and preservation, restoration
and/or enhancement of heritage assets, both in historical
ensembles and in sites scattered across the territory
• Dissemination of resources among the local population
• Changes in communication strategy

17. What was the main influence of the Nomination from a rural
development perspective?
• Social mobilisation
• Strengthening territorial identity
• Making us think
• Contemplate new land management models
• And we hope that more tourists

18. Thank you very much.
Julio Grande
jgrande@sepinum.com