WDM online Lecture: Landscape-based Ecomuseums

1st June 2021, 17:30 

Landscape-based Ecomuseums – conservation of landscape heritage through community participation and green circular economy
Speakers: Bosse Largerqvist (University of Gothenborg); Sándor Némethy (University of Pécs; University of Gothenborg)

Respondend: May Est (spatial planner, UNITAR Fellow)

A landscape-based ecomuseum is an area developed as an open-air museum, linking the natural environment, its ecosystem services and the cultural heritage components of the landscape into one holistic unit, focused on the identity of a place, largely based on local participation and aiming to enhance the welfare and development of local communities. Usually, most ecomuseums are established around one certain activity, heritage category or traditions of exploiting specific natural resources. Regarding landscape conservation, the essential multifunctionality of these ecomuseums is not sufficiently defined, even if they greatly contribute to the welfare of local communities. In our opinion, modern ecomuseums should emphasize their own potential to meet environmental and societal challenges.
Therefore, the new Balaton Ecomuseum in Hungary with an area of 8500 km2 is being constructed on a fundamentally new concept, based on all constituents and variability of the cultural landscapes, with particular emphasis on the connection between the vulnerable natural environment and the rich cultural heritage of the region including the built heritage and traditional trades and crafts in connection with agriculture and the intangible heritage of the Balaton Region. The structure is based on an interdisciplinary system approach, where ecological sustainability, conservation of the landscape character, enhancement of the development of viable local enterprises and markets for distribution of local products and services constitute the basis of viable circular economies and development of cultural tourism in micro-regions around Lake Balaton. This multi-layered cultural landscape concept is based on an evolutionary viewpoint: cultural landscapes are continuously changing due to natural and anthropogenic factors, and these changes have an impact on the conservation of all categories of natural and cultural heritage of the area concerned. Therefore, the term conservation includes both preservation and sustainable use of natural and heritage resources, taking into consideration the bearing capacity of the area.

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Bibliography

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• Némethy, S.; Lagerqvist, B., “The Balaton Ecomuseum – a case study on heritage tourism and stakeholder management”, TOURMAN 2019 Conference “Tourism, travel and hospitality at crossroads: The way ahead” – Thessaloniki, Greece, the 24th to the 29th of October 2019. 98-98.
• Némethy, S., “The Balaton Ecomuseum – Touristic Product and Landscape Management in One System”, in M. Noco?, T. Pasierbek, J. Sobczuk, B. Walas (eds) Nižnanský Parki Narodowe i Otoczenie Spo?eczno – Gospodarcze. Skazani na Dialog (National Parks and the Socio – economic Environment. Condemned to Dialogue). (Wy?sza Szko?a Turystyki i Ekologii w Suchej Beskidzkiej, 2019), 175-203.Nemethy, S., Takacs, T., Szemethy, L., Lagerqvist, B., Barocsi, Z., Dinya, A., & Peterffy, “Collection, cultivation and processing of medical plants, herbs and spices in the Balaton Ecomuseum – herbal medicine as intangible cultural heritage”, Ecocycles, 6(1), (2020),52-87. https://doi.org/10.19040/ecocycles.v6i1.166
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Bosse Lagerqvist, Associate professor, Department of Conservation, University of Gotehnburg. His academic and professional activities has been oriented towards areas ranging from methods for recording physical properties of heritage; industrial heritage and maritime heritage and the possibilities to develop such remains for the benefit of continued societal development; into broader concepts of the landscape as the base for human activities and the arena for present and future societal development.

Sándor Némethy PhD, biologist, marine geologist, strategic manager, associate professor at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, University of Pécs, Hungary and University College of Tourism and Ecology, Sucha Beskidzka, Poland. Research: ecosystem services and landscape management, aquatic ecosystems, renewable energy systems, circular economy, ecomuseums and landscape observatories. Teaching: Earth System Science, soil science, genetics and biotechnology, wine geography, oenotourism. Languages: Hungarian, English, Swedish, Polish, Italian.

 

May East is a sustainability educator, spatial planner and regenerative designer. Her work spans the fields of cultural geography, urban ecology, and women’s studies. Awarded Women of the Decade in Sustainability and Leadership by the Women Economic Forum, she works in 55 countries with community-based organisations and intergovernmental agencies in policy guidance for SDGs implementation with projects seeking to strengthen climate resilience, food security and women’s empowerment. A UNITAR Fellow she has an MSc in Spatial Planning with specialization in the rehabilitation of abandoned villages. www.mayeast.co.uk