Europe has an immense rural cultural heritage made up of all the cultural goods (tangible and intangible) and the natural heritage of the rural areas. These include, among others: the buildings that make up rural architecture and habitat, as well as the techniques, tools and know-how from which they originate; the landscapes that rural populations have shaped over the ages; the various forms of local artistic expression, crafts, traditions and products.
For millions of Europeans, in all our European countries, vernacular culture and heritage are an essential component of their identity and define their “living space” and “way of life”. Very real threats jeopardise and gradually erode this inestimable wealth, including the depopulation of the countryside, unreasonable land exploitation in the name of productivity and profit, the abandonment and oblivion of traditions and know-how by new generations, pollution and the harmful effects of climate change.
The Council of Europe's Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (CETS No. 199, Faro Convention) proclaims “the need to put people and human values at the centre of an enlarged and cross-disciplinary concept of cultural heritage” and emphasises “the value and potential of cultural heritage wisely used as a resource for sustainable development and quality of life in a constantly evolving society”.
The Parliamentary Assembly should promote the development of a European strategy for the protection of rural culture and heritage, based on the principles of the Faro Convention, to better integrate this issue into public policies: a holistic strategy associating and mobilising all the stakeholders concerned, designed to improve and disseminate knowledge of European rural culture and heritage, and to put in place the necessary intervention methods to ensure their preservation.