The final conference of the European project "IRIS - Inspiring rural heritage: Sustainable practices of protection and preservation of mountain landscapes and memories" started today in Kolašin and will last until October 21.
The conference is part of the project, which has been implemented since October 2020 in five European countries: Montenegro, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The aim of these activities is to improve the socially and ecologically sustainable preservation, protection and use of mountain areas with their natural and cultural heritage, as well as research and development of access to "living heritage", through the promotion of "protection through use" of mountain areas and neighboring rural areas.
As part of the final conference, a field tour of Sinjajevina was organized today for over 20 international scientists, after which a workshop on Sinjajevina will be held on Friday, October 20.
"That workshop will focus on the promotion of mountain animal husbandry from a cultural, socio-economic and ecological point of view. the exhibition "The Future through Tradition", which refers to the five pilot areas of the project in France, Italy, Montenegro, Spain and the United Kingdom, will be opened afterwards. On Saturday, the results of this research project will be presented in the other four countries," reads the statement signed by Pablo Dominguez, coordinator of the IRIS project in Montenegro.
The final conference of the IRIS project, as explained, aims to present the results of the activities implemented by the project partners in five countries, in the pilot areas: Enveigt in the eastern Pyrenees in France; Eastern Ligurian Apennines in Italy, Sinjaevina in Montenegro, Guadix (Guadix) in the north of the Sierra Nevada in Spain and the Cheviot Hills (Cheviot Hills) between Scotland and England in the north-east of the United Kingdom. Also, the goal of the conference is to be a platform for exchanging experiences and good practices with decision makers related to mountain areas, and building new dialogues for their protection through use.
The pilot area of the IRIS project in Montenegro is Sinjajevina, "which is the largest pasture mountain in Montenegro and one of the largest in Europe". Sinjajevina with katuns, seasonal mountain settlements, which are more and more valued for their natural and cultural value, project implementers remind, is still used by a significant number of herders.
"This is particularly significant for Montenegro, bearing in mind that the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Assets of Montenegro accepted the initiative for the protection of Katunovanje or the tradition of raising katuns, which could become part of UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by joining the already protected the practice of Transhumance, which is on the list...", it says, among other things, in the announcement.
The IRIS project is co-financed through the European Union's Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation, and is implemented by a consortium consisting of: University of Genoa, Italy as coordinator; French National Council for Scientific Research CNRS and University of Toulouse, France; University of Granada, Spain and University of Durham, United Kingdom. The implementation of the IRIS project in Montenegro is coordinated by the Laboratory for Environmental Geography (GEODE), CNRS and the University of Toulouse. At the same time, the project is implemented in cooperation with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and professors from the University of Montenegro.
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