https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stX18tlpAXM
Prof. José María Martín Civantos from the University of Granada discusses a pilot project in southeast Spain focusing on traditional Islamic-era irrigation systems. These systems, still in use and managed communally by farmers, have created sustainable oases for over a 1000 years. The project integrates historical, archaeological, and environmental perspectives, promoting cultural tourism to diversify local economies and acknowledge the farmers' cultural heritage. Key activities include channel restoration, participatory activities, and promoting local products. Despite challenges, José María remains optimistic about the systems' resilience and their role in sustainable rural development.
José María's ideas stimulate a lot of the other pilots in SECreTour and his approach is worth scrutiny.
Transcript
Matevž Straus 0:08
Matt, hello everyone. My name is Matevž Straus, and this is another episode in a series of talks that we are having with our SECreTour pilot projects. Here today with me is a special guest, our project leader, coordinator, José María Martins Civantos. José María is a professor of mediaeval history and archaeology at the University of Granada, Spain, and today we will be talking about the pilot case that he and his team is running in Granada Almeria,
hi, José María,
José María 0:44
nice to meet you. It's a pleasure.
Matevž Straus 0:48
José María, can you please introduce us to your pilot case, to the traditional irrigation systems, especially, of course, related to cultural tourism.
José María 1:00
Yeah, we work in the southeast of Spain, in the eastern part of Andalusia and Garcia, and we work particularly with the historical and traditional irrigation systems that were already built during the Islamic period around 1000 years ago. They are still operating, managed communally by farmers that own the land with the right to use the the water. And we have been working with these irrigator communities for many years. Well, mainly from a historical and archaeological perspective, making research and then including a more integrated approach related to the environmental values and the ecosystem services, because these irrigation systema have created cultural landscapes that are so beautiful from a static point of view, but with so many cultural, environmental, social and productive values to make you a more precise picture.
You can imagine an oasis, because we are in a quite an arid environment in Granada, Almeria, the southeast of Spain, and all these systems have created oases, real oases with a lot of vegetation and biodiversity related with the agrarian production, and they have demonstrated also to be sustainable, extremely sustainable and resilient for more than 1000 years.
So we've been working with these systems for more than one decade, with a participatory approach, working directly with the communities, and for us the the cultural tourism has been an opportunity to open the, not only the research, but the possibilities to work with the farmers, with the irrigator communities from a multi functional perspective, so trying to offer diversification in the economy and the services that the communities provide to society. Trying to get back, a return, an economic return, but also a social return, with the acknowledge of this cultural landscape and this cultural heritage produced and managed by the farmers.
Matevž Straus 3:58
So SECreTour projects wants to put forward the concept of heritage communities. What, in your case, is a heritage community?
José María 4:08
Well, for us, it's been an opportunity to go deep in the participatory approach, because tourism is something that people understand quite well. Currently, it's a global issue, and we are all tourists in some way, or in some time in our in our lives, it's something that, from a political perspective, it's also quite easy to understand and to introduce in also in the debates and the interest of the politicians and managers, but also the local population. So it's been an opportunity first to reflect about what a community, heritage community, could be. In one of these small towns where we are working with the and with the irrigation systems, trying to say, well, we, we are trying to promote visitors to come to your town, not only because you have a castle or a beautiful church or another monument, but because you have, you have a landscape that is basically an agrarian landscape with a lot of values. But the people that manage and maintain that landscape, and so one of the main motivations for the visitors to come to your town is produced and maintained by the farmers. And the farmers don't benefit from the touristic activity. They don't benefit from the visitors, but they are offering a cultural service. They're offering a cultural product, not only the channels and the infrastructure of the irrigation, but the whole landscape itself. So we are we have been trying to promote mechanisms, tools, for payment, for services to the farmers, to the communities, mainly between the municipalities and the and the communities.
And now we are trying to enlarge the network and the relationships to the the other sectors of the society and the stake stakeholders. So the idea is try to highlight also that the touristic sector low the local touristic sector is benefiting from the services that the farmers are providing. So there should be a return also from the touristic sector to the farmers with different tools. One of them is directly promoting the consumption of local products already produced in the traditional irrigation systems, to promote local products, local varieties, or to promote the cultural roots that we are creating along the the channels, and to promote the relationship between the the touristic sector and the visitors and the local producers and the local farmers.
We are convinced that this is also a very good way to to establish a dialogue and a common reflection about the role of cultural heritage in general, beyond the tourism, beyond the visitors. But which is the impact? which is also the potential? which are the limits? how to benefit the whole town and the whole society, or the whole territory, and not specifically some sectors, and how, of course, how to avoid the negative impact in the future.
So that is what we are working on, and that is, that is what we think a heritage community could be about.
Matevž Straus 8:32
You already touched upon several of the activities that you're running in your pilot case, but if you would have to stress just a few the main main activities. What would they be?
José María 8:46
Well, the first one is something that has been very successful in the last year and has allowed us to to give visibility to these traditional systems, and to give visibility to the farmers, to the irrigators communities. That is the restoration of the of the channels, with participatory activities, with volunteers and but always as a social intervention tool in the in the territory, and as a provocationn. So trying to activate many things in the in the community, in the local community, but also trying to provoke debate about the policies, about cultural policies, about agrarian policies, environmental policies, territorial planning that are affecting all these landscapes. Not only the irrigation systems, but all these landscapes and that has also allowed us to introduce new tools, innovative social tools, related with the payment for services, related with the land stewardship contracts, sustainable planning for the irrigators communities.
And, of course, the use of cultural tourism, sustainable cultural tourism, and touristic products like the cultural roots as something that can provoke, also a benefit and a positive return, as I said before, not only for the touristic sector, economic sector, but also to all the society and the farmers itself, changing mentalities and perspective regarding the agrarian activities and the rural areas.
Matevž Straus 10:39
José María, so what is your vision? What is your mission? Beyond the SECreTour project, how do you see the traditional immigration systems and the pilot and the community around it developing in the future?
José María 10:55
Well, despite the threats and all the risk for the future, the uncertainty in general, for this, for in the context of global change, all the processes of intensification and industrialization of the agriculture, so also all the public policies and public investment against all these traditional systems, I'm quite optimistic in the sense that we are demonstrating that all these irrigation systems are sustainable resilience, that they provide so many ecosystem services, from cultural services to environmental services, and that they are very interesting and very useful tools, and that we can learn a lot from the past to Improve our present and the future, and to face all the challenges that we have for the future, it's a very good way also to ask ourselves what should be the role of rural areas in this context of global change and in the future? And we have a lot of alternatives, and we have a lot of a lot of ideas, always based on multi functionality and always based on sustainability and an integrated Vision.
Matevž Straus 12:35
Thank you, José María, for this optimistic view of the future. Let's keep it like this, and let's spread it also to other cases around Europe. I wish you good luck with your activities, and, of course, looking forward to follow up on your pilot case. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.
