The Integration of the Communities in an Application Process

Abstract

A UNESCO Global Geopark builds its strategy on the Communities and their development, contributing to the reinforcement of the sense of belonging and their active participation in the whole process, like it is expected from a Bottom-Up process. In this way, Estrela, as an aspirant to UNESCO Global Geopark, has defined its strategy based on this premise. With a 2216km2 territory, 9 municipalities and around 170,000 inhabitants, AGE has been working on the dissemination of both the concept of Geopark and the advantages that an application such as this offers territories with low density and high levels of depopulation. Thus, the year 2017 was marked by the start of several activities with the objective of improving the involvement of the Population in a process so structurant for the territory as this is, because a holistic vision of the territory has finally emerged, opposing the fragmented vision existing until then of the municipalities that compose this application. In this context, the Estrela Conferences advocate a new approach to integrate the people in this application process, giving them an active voice and bringing them to the stage, giving them the opportunity to discuss and participate in the decisions that are being made. The nine municipalities that have promoted this project have been travelled through for nine months, in which the main themes related to Serra da Estrela were discussed through public sessions open to the community, inspired by the concept of Community Forums. These focus groups, with the main objective of discussing and finding solutions to the main challenges that Estrela faces nowadays, were occurred, preferably outside the county headquarters with the clear objective of decentralizing and taking the Geopark to places which usually are removed from the calendar of the municipalities. Examples of this decentralization were the cases of Aldeia de São Francisco de Assis and Caria. These debate sessions made us travel through themes such as "Heritage, Culture and Tradition", "Communication and Territorial Identity", "Geology and Geodiversity", "Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities", "Education and Science: (re)interpreting natural spaces", "Environment and Biodiversity and Mountain Spaces", "Development and Territorial Cohesion", "Depopulation and Low Density" and "Geoparks: new strategies of the 21st Century". Thus, this communication intends to present the Conferências of Estrela as an example of good practices, since in addition to fostering the values of an UNESCO Global Geopark, it also places the Populations at the centre of the strategy of a Geopark, favouring the development of a critical spirit, active citizenship and a sense of belonging. It also helps the sharing of ancestral knowledge by the eldest population, which would otherwise be lost in time.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio