DECLARATION OF TORROELLA DE MONTGRÍ

(In defence of the dry stone cultural heritage)

(Baix Empordà, Catalonia), October, 24, 2004

The persons and organizations mentioned at the end of this Declaration met at Torroella de Montgri last October 23 and 24, 2004, on account of the II Meeting on Preservation of the Dry Stone Heritage in the Catalonian Countries.

Considering that the culture of dry stone has generated and shaped one of the most frequent, common and spectacular landscapes which are so significant in the Catalonian and Mediterranean Countries, and constitutes the eminent expression of Nature’s and Man’s symbiosis,

Considering that thanks to the techniques regarding dry stone it has been possible up to day to go on managing the territories intended for agriculture, stock breeding and forestry with a minimum of means and a maximum of efficiency as regards the environment,

Considering the material qualities of dry stone:

-         for its outstanding contribution to the biodiversity improvement as it constitutes a privileged habitat for flora and fauna,

-         for its decisive contribution to avoid or minimize the damage and erosion of the soil, the risk of inundations and make a better use of the rainwater,

-         for its decisive contribution to the overall maintenance of the landscapes, their management, their structuring and diversity, which indirectly implies a decrease of forest fire risks,

Considering the immaterial qualities of dry stone which, apart from its structures, constructions and spaces, integrates a huge density of techniques, knowledge, abilities, the way each community uses and interprets it according to the environment as well as the traditions and expressions intangible of their populations,

Considering that dry stone constitutes a dense, complex and diversified cultural landscape which can only be understood, studied, protected and managed if we start from contextual, material and immaterial, inseparable units,

Acknowledging the dry stone technique its perfectly topical and relevant character and potential, from the mechanic and architectonic point of view as well as the landscape and aesthetic one, which means that it may still be used in the conservation of the dry stone existing heritage and also in innovative expressions and projects since it can offer technically tenable and adequate solutions,

Considering that the dry stone heritage constitutes a cultural asset of a great magnitude and an important economic environmental potential related to agriculture, stockbreeding or forestry production as well as to the cultural tourist market,

Considering that the new multifunctional, multisector and integrated character of agriculture, stockbreeding and forestry has to be closely linked to a balanced development of the rural territory, the quality of life improvement and the enhancing and protection of the cultural and environmental heritage,

Acknowledging the dry stone landscapes their capacity as trans-frontier cultural links as well as privileged cooperation areas between persons and cultures, of solidarity and cohesion, and as sharing and participating spaces,

Considering the great fragility of this cultural heritage and the important menaces threatening it, such as the failing to recognize it, the lack of inventories made, the approximate observations, their apparent modest character, their frequent insertion in weakened depopulated areas, the lack of maintenance, this kind of landscape considered as of marginal importance due to infrastructure projects or regional development, its frequent lack of connection with the sectorial decisions and policies,

Taking into consideration the existing legal texts at international level as regards protection and management of the natural and cultural heritage, of the landscape, of the regional development, agrarian policies, local autonomy and trans-frontier cooperation,

We claim:

That public, private, political, academic, professional, employers’, trade-unions’ institutions at all levels and all circles of their competences:

1. - Integrate, from the very start, as a major parameter, the necessity of protecting and developing dry stone landscapes, without treating them fractionally and residually, in their policies and all their regional development projects, infrastructures, agriculture or any other one which would affect the integrity of these landscapes or might modify them in an undesirable way. The preservation of dry stone landscapes can’t be considered as a marginal problem but rather as a main goal as regards the regional development

2. - Link, systematically and ineluctably, any type of help to productive or economic activities related to dry stone landscapes, to any other aid concordant or simultaneous intended for the preservation, restoration and maintenance of those landscapes and every element which constitutes them

3. - Promote and adopt all legislative, administrative, financial and educative measures necessary to improve the knowledge, study, circulation and integrated protection of dry stone heritage

4. - Promote the population’s education as regards the cultural heritage and especially the dry stone’s

5. - Give support, with legal and economic initiatives, with technical or any other means, boosting volunteers, associations, foundations, organizations, civil platforms of all kinds that work in the defence, of dry stone, in general, acknowledge explicitly its importance, use its capacities and work, and impulse its participation in projects and programs,

6. - Promote training programs in universities including heritage matters and especially dry stone, in programs relative to architecture, urban development, landscaping, engineering, geography, history, archaeology, anthropology, agronomy, forestry, cultural management and tourism, on the professional and craftwork level, so that all the implicated participants may become aware of the great cultural value of dry stone and acquire the necessary tools and knowledge to be able to intervene adequately and promote the use and material for this technique

7. - Adopt every relevant legal initiatives or sponsoring actions so that thanks to tax relieves and economic aid given to local administrations and private owners or thanks to different help and aid actions, efficient incentive actions might be put into practice in order to preserve the dry stone heritage. From a legal and economic point of view, the most important priority should be the preservation, restoration or rehabilitation of the dry stone heritage so as to avoid its demolition and substitution, and promote the use or reuse of what still exists as an incentive of a tenable development policy

8. - Give the maximum transparency and publicity to all the projects which in one way or the other might affect the dry stone landscapes in order to be able to analyse them, and if necessary, to be amended by the affected communities before taking any type of decisions and foment the participating democracy

9. - To encourage the necessary legal and economic measures in order to develop an important work market linked to this craft and pieces of work related to dry stone so as to contribute to the impulse and diversification of the local economies and the increase of vacancies and their index of occupation

10. - To lend full support to the objectives of this Declaration and to commit oneself to doing so and use the necessary means to guarantee its application

With the intention of strengthening the follow-up of this Declaration, promoting actions, which will keep them in the institutions’ minds and foment initiatives to intensify its application, we unanimously decide to create a Coordinator of entities in defence of dry stone in the Catalonian Countries. This Coordinator whose structure and head office will be defined within three months after the date of this Declaration, will also be responsible for the promotion of exchanges and the creation of trans-national networks between structures with similar finalities.