Harnessing the economic and social potential of rural heritage

Heritage represents an asset for Europe’s countryside in terms of its social significance and its rural development potential. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) offers opportunities to help EU countries make the most of natural and cultural heritage treasures.

Cooperation on cultural matters across EU countries often takes place through the Creative Europe Programme or through the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme (currently Horizon Europe) that funds projects supporting, among others, sustainable and digital achievements towards a more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe.

Related recent political forecasts regarding EU policy for cultural heritage from 2024-2029 have been led by members of the European Parliament. Their Think Tank assessment advocates policy priorities that reinforce cross-sectoral cooperation while promoting quality working conditions.

The EU’s heritage sector is widely acknowledged as important for jobs. Eurostat statistics spotlight this as an industry with a small gender employment gap compared to other sectors, and note that cultural employment has been growing in the EU countries.

The importance of rural heritage was underscored by the European Economic and Social Committee during the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and its legacy, the European framework for action on cultural heritage. This initiative celebrated the multifaceted value of cultural heritage, particularly in rural areas, where traditions (including culinary ones), landscapes, and natural resources act as bridges between memories of the past and future aspirations.

Rural heritage is a valuable source of history, culture and nature, connecting people, places and times. Its importance goes beyond conservation; it brings together tangible, intangible, and natural elements that strengthen communities, support sustainability, and improve well-being by promoting shared values.

Tangible elements, such as buildings, agricultural tools and historical trails, provide physical evidence of cultural continuity. Intangible aspects, such as vibrant traditions and rites, lively festivals, local gastronomy and artisanal crafts, encapsulate the spirit and identity of rural communities, ensuring their unique characters thrive. Completing these, natural heritage, including landscapes, biodiversity and ecological systems, can be both a source of life and a space of profound cultural significance, anchoring communities to their environments in meaningful ways.

Rural heritage serves as a conduit for generational knowledge transfer, enabling the sharing of wisdom, skills and traditions from elder to younger generations. Importantly, it has the capacity to mobilise local communities, strengthen connectivity, whether social, cultural or even digital, ensuring that rural areas remain vital parts of broader networks and limiting the feeling of being ‘left behind’.

The Ruractive approach fosters sustainable and inclusive development that has the potential to empower all members of rural communities throughout Europe. Through co-created, implemented and monitored solutions, it engages vulnerable groups within the Hub of rural innovation ecosystem to address social exclusion and underrepresentation through a targeted and inclusive approach.

Important insights on the value of rural heritage as an engine of rural development were collected by the Ruritage project, which explored cultural and natural heritage as an engine of rural regeneration, focusing on academic topics, such as: participatory process for regenerating rural areas through heritage-led plans; systemic innovation areas for heritage-led rural regeneration best practices; and co-developing heritage-led regeneration plans in rural areas.

Especially in the last few years, the designated ECoCs have included small cities, and the focus of each Capital’s programme naturally shifted from an exclusively urban-centered approach to a broader dimension, encompassing the surrounding peri-urban and rural territories. This concerns preliminary activities (often spanning several months or a few years), the programme of the core “year”, and the long-lasting impacts on the territory and its population. As a result, local traditions and heritage have become integral to the EcoCs, which have been unlocking the full potential of rural heritage through long-term, community-led processes that foster vibrant and sustainable solutions, and connecting tradition and innovation to create lasting cultural, social and environmental impact.

ECoCs excel in three experimental fields: cultural routes connecting local and European stories; reinterpretation of rites and traditions; and integration of ecological knowledge into landscapes and sustainability efforts.

One iconic example is Matera 2019. This small Italian city, also a UNESCO world heritage site, was designated as an ECoC along with the surrounding rural region of Basilicata, and its cultural programme expanded to embrace the region’s rich rural heritage. Within the Matera 2019 programme, the ‘ancient-future’ Open Sound project stands out for weaving together popular sound archives, traditions and rites, regional landscapes and local communities. The project generated a new cultural and economic model, built through several years of community participation and long-lasting partnerships, to gain international recognition.

Similarly, Bourges 2028 is currently developing its ECoC approach in an ’ultra-rurality’ context (the remote French countryside). A flagship activity is the RER Europa project, ‘a tourist, cultural, and ecological journey’ crossing and connecting Bourges’ tangible, intangible and natural heritage dimension, while fostering innovative and dynamic connections between urban and rural areas.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) offers many opportunities to preserve and promote rural heritage – whether tangible, intangible or natural – as shown by over 100 projects gathered in the EU CAP Network’s good practice database.

Ireland’s Traditional Farm Buildings Grants Scheme - which was one of the 2024 Grand Prix prize winners at the European Heritage Awards - received CAP assistance to help farmers repair and modernise over 1 000 traditional rural heritage assets.

Croatia’s project to re-establish dry stone walls as a farm landscape feature benefitted biodiversity as well as the local economy.

A CAP-funded traditional forest education facility in Slovakia is helping residents and tourists appreciate and preserve their natural heritage, while, in Finnish Lapland, tourists can now experience the local shepherd tradition first-hand thanks to a sustainable tourism project that created new job opportunities for local people.

In Slovenia, The Lore project is using 3D and augmented reality technologies to promote awareness of local heritage, bridging older and younger generations.