Presentation
About the project Treasures of Galicia
Treasures of Galicia is a non-profit organization that aims to revitalise the value of Galicia’s heritage,its recovery, dissemination and sustainable use.
We intend to promote a social movement in which all agents are able to be involved: local groups, companies, institutions, governments and individuals. Join our search and discover the Treasures of Galicia.
We defend the ordination of the immense Galician heritage, identifying new development routes and ways of generating interest in our land.
We are part of the important global network, International National Trust Organization, with whom we spread the values and attractions of our heritage internationally.
Our website is designed to spread the treasures of Galicia beyond our borders, but we invite you to also discover one of our greatest treasures: our language.
Our vision
A world where heritage (material and immaterial) is assumed by the population as a valuable resource: identity, differentiating and economic dynamism, which the local population feels as their own and is involved in its maintenance, while citizens from other places know, appreciate and enjoy these resources in a sustainable way.
Our mission
Contribute to the valuation of the Galician heritage,
- proposing initiatives in which the surrounding populations strengthen their links with resources -under criterias of sustainability and social participation-
- disseminating it among citizens outside the environment to promote responsible use.
Valuing heritage is a challenge that can not be fully assumed by the Public Administration, but must be shared by all to make it viable. However, there is a management behaviour and a collective conscience that assigns the government the full resposibility for these resources. Moreover, before the huge amount of resources, this situation condemns them to a slow agony and in many cases to their disappearance.
Therefore we need to make our positioning clear
1º.- The heritage belongs to everyone and we must enable citizen participation. But within a collective consciousness of representativeness, the individual perception of heritage resources is personal and heterogeneous and a certain line of approach to heritage does not have to be shared by others. For this reason, the strategies for valuing heritage are very diverse.
2º.- The law establishes that the responsibility for the protection of the patrimony falls on the Administration, which intends with high cost and economic effort to maintain a huge inventory of resources that it does not reach. This is especially felt in times of crisis. It is necessary to recognize that the current model fails to preserve and promote heritage.
3º.- An adequate management of heritage in these environments incorporates women into work, generates employment oppprtunities, creates attachment to the territory, foments self-esteem, has very little impact on the ecosystem and low carbon dioxide emissions. Finally, synergies are generated with initiatives to recover and promote local products, as well as part of our heritage.
4º.- Treasures of Galicia aims to value the heritage linked to its sustainable economic use. The words “marketing” or “tourism” are associated with indiscriminate exploitation, but current trends in responsible behavior are an opportunity to offer added value to destinations managed with sustainability. This positioning means changing “quantity” versus “quality” of visitors, but also greater profitability and the possibility of building a brand image of a country of multisectoral interest.
5º.- The diversity and peculiarities of such a rich heritage require a multidisciplinary and participatory approach: a new governance of heritage based on the co-responsibility of the local population and users attitudes towards resources.
