PARIGI, 13 FEBBRAIO – A delegation from the Ente Parco del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni, composed of President Coccorullo, Director Romano and the head of the UNESCO Office of the Park Authority, Dr. Aloia, had a working meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on February 2, 2024.
The delegation, accompanied by Amb. Stellino and officials from the Permanent Representation of Italy to UNESCO, presented the draft of the integrated management plan for the area, which has four UNESCO awards: MAB Reserve (UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program) since 1997, World Heritage Site since 1998 (Paestum, Velia and Certosa di Padula), Geopark (UNESCO Global Network of Geoparks) since 2010 and Intangible Heritage Element since 2013 for the Mediterranean diet.
The delegation met with a number of UNESCO officials: the Deputy Director General for Natural Sciences, Lidia Brito; the Deputy Director General for Culture, Ernesto Ottone; the Director of the Heritage Center, Lazare Eloundou Assomo; the heads of the MAB programme, Antonio Abreu de Souza and Meriem Bouamrane; and of the Global Network of Geoparks, Kristof Vandenberghe.
The Ente delegation, the UNESCO Secretariat and the Representation emphasised the advantages of the synergy between the local community, environment and culture in the management of sites, particularly multi-designated sites, and the Secretariat undertook to send comments on the draft integrated plan presented by the Ente. The Mediterranean diet was the subject of a specific presentation prepared by Prof. Colao, holder of the UNESCO chair on the Mediterranean diet, followed by a tasting of typical Cilento products.
At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that the integrated management plan, in its final version, could later be presented as a ‘best practice’, in order to inspire other realities that, in the areas covered by the four designations, need assistance, particularly in Africa, where the number of geoparks and biosphere reserves is small. (@OnuItalia)
