(ANSAmed) - MADRID, MAY 18 - A methodical reference for a
comprehensive interventions at a local level, emphasizing the
result of a process of participation of civil society, social
agents and local authorities in the protection of cultural
heritage: the Montada programme - covering six Maghrebi
participating cities - has now been published in the compendium
'Heritage and Participation: Towards a New Framework of
Governance in the Maghreb'.
Publication has been announced by sources of project
coordination in Barcelona. Directed by Xavier Casanova, head of
the Montada Project, and coordinated by Montserrat Casado, the
publication has been realised in collaboration with the
Association of Architects, Technicians and Town Planners of
Barcelona, with the Ecole d'Avignon, the Association for
Safeguarding the Medina of Kairouan, with the Sala Almoustaqbal
Association, with the Office for the Protection of the Mzab
Valley and the Development Centre of the Region of Tensift. It
was supervised by Brigit Colin of Unesco and Josep Giralt of
Iemed, members of Montada's Scientific Committee.
Restoration and safeguarding the traditional architectonic
heritage to redeem the historic and cultural identity of the
Mediterranean: these are the objectives of the Montada Project,
which forms part of the Euromed Heritage IV programme,
co-financed by the European Union with 1.5 million euros for a
period of three years. Six Maghrebi cities are involved in the
project, comprising highly diverse urban, economic and cultural
settings: Sale' and Marrakesh for Morocco, Sousse and Kairouan
for Tunisia and Dellys and Ghardaa for Algeria.
As the director of the project, Xavier Casanovas, told ANSAmed,
''The active participation of civil society and of all the
agents involved in processes of managing the heritage is one of
the most important challenges for a future in which enhancement
of architectural assets will go hand in hand with social equity
and the needs of people who live and work in the areas that have
been declared to be heritage''.
Appropriation of the local area as part of integrating the
heritage as a factor of sustainable cultural, social, economic
and environmental development, based on mutual understanding and
dialogue between cultures and different generations. Younes
Babanedjar, head of the programme in the Mzab Valley,
highlighted, on the other hand, the importance of the tradition
of Ibadism, a particularly tolerant branch of Islam, in
involving populations not just in decisions but also in
collective maintenance work on the Ksars - the Berber fortified
villages - and the palm groves. ''Montada has given fresh vigour
to values of social cohesion that already existed but which had
faded over recent years''.
For Nabi Rahmouni, head of Montada in Morocco, ''thinking about
heritage means first and foremost to reflect on the needs of a
society and the forums created by the project have revealed
themselves to be among the most important platforms for
realising this objective''. Mourad Rammah, head of the programme
in Tunis, stressed the need to revitalise the associations and
to guarantee a continuity of the forums in order to set down the
basis for a new framework of governance in Tunis.
(ANSAmed).
