`Proposal to Include Apulia's 'Plain of Olive Trees' on Unesco List - Olive Oil Times
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Proposal to Include Apulia's 'Plain of Olive Trees' on Unesco List

By Alfonso De Lucia
Feb. 25, 2015 11:04 UTC

The first of three meet­ings to sup­port the nom­i­na­tion of the ​“Piana degli Ulivi” (Plain of Olive Trees) to be inserted in the Unesco World Heritage list took place in Ostuni, Puglia.

The plain is an area between the vil­lages of Fasano, Ostuni and Carovigno claim­ing the largest con­cen­tra­tion of ancient olive trees in the Mediterranean area: some spec­i­mens date back more than 3,000 years and are con­sid­ered nat­ural archae­o­log­i­cal mon­u­ments.

The meet­ing was attended by del­e­gates of sev­eral asso­ci­a­tions, grow­ers, tourism oper­a­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the mayor of Ostuni, Gianfranco Coppola, and Regional Director Giovanni Epifani.

Monuments of nature, still pro­duc­ing the same oil the Messapi, Romans, Byzantines, Angevins, Aragonese and Spanish tasted- Gianfranco Ciola, Park of Apulian Coastal dunes

The pro­posal is being coor­di­nated by Dr. Gianfranco Ciola, direc­tor of the Park of the Apulian coastal dunes. According to Ciola, the inscrip­tion of the Plains in the Unesco World Heritage ​“will rep­re­sent an impor­tant attrac­tion for the area so rich in mon­u­men­tal olive trees, farms, under­ground mills, coastal tow­ers. This recog­ni­tion will surely pro­vide an impor­tant tool to pro­mote the area and to boost the agri­cul­tural econ­omy and local tourism.”

Olive Oil Times asked Dr. Ciola some ques­tions about the pro­posal.

When was the idea of propos­ing the Plains as a World Heritage Site born?

The project came from the will of the three munic­i­pal admin­is­tra­tions to enhance the value of the land­scape and its vast cul­tural and archi­tec­tural assets.

The idea for the pro­posal was born a few years ago from the Rotary International which orga­nized sev­eral con­fer­ences on the topic. Later, the vil­lages of Fasano, Ostuni and Carovigno approved the start of the process of nom­i­nat­ing the Plain. By that time the pro­posal was sup­ported by many local actors: envi­ron­men­tal groups and cul­tural asso­ci­a­tions, pub­lic bod­ies, enter­prises, were all con­vinced that it could be a pow­er­ful tool for con­ser­va­tion and devel­op­ment of this unique agri­cul­tural land­scape and its con­nected tourist econ­omy.

How does the appli­ca­tion process work?

The appli­ca­tion must be ini­tially for­warded to the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, for a pre­lim­i­nary read­ing, adjust­ment and refine­ment of the pro­posal. The work is car­ried out jointly with the Ministry of Culture and, in some cases, with the Ministry of Agriculture. If the pro­posal is con­sid­ered wor­thy, it is inserted into a ​‘Priority List.’ Next, the Ministry of Culture, by the means of the Italian Office of UNESCO, will send the appli­ca­tion to the cen­tral UNESCO office in Paris.

The pro­posal must meet the guide­lines estab­lished by UNESCO and is divided into four parts:

a) the proof of the excep­tional uni­ver­sal value of the site, through a study that high­lights the fea­tures mak­ing the site unique and/or in pos­ses­sion of an out­stand­ing uni­ver­sal value

b) the com­par­a­tive analy­sis, that com­pares the pro­posed site with national and inter­na­tional sim­i­lar ones, show­ing that the can­di­date site owns excep­tional val­ues world­wide and not just at local or national level

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c) the require­ments of integrity, authen­tic­ity, and stew­ard­ship con­di­tions, as defined in the UNESCO guide­lines

d) means of pro­tec­tion of the site, at any national or local lev­els, that are essen­tial to sub­mit the can­di­dacy.

What are the ben­e­fits of includ­ing the Plain among the World Heritage Sites and what are the oblig­a­tions to ensure that it remains?

The recog­ni­tion of World Heritage has a pretty sym­bolic value, since UNESCO rep­re­sents a ​“qual­ity mark,” a seal of pres­tige within the pro­tec­tion of cul­tural her­itage. Secondly, the recog­ni­tion has an eco­nomic value, derived from the adop­tion of poli­cies that will attract more vis­i­tors and more fund­ings for the devel­op­ment and preser­va­tion of the site.

UNESCO main­tains rela­tions with both pub­lic insti­tu­tions, for cre­at­ing cul­tural projects (train­ing activ­i­ties, pub­lic art projects, etc…), and com­pa­nies, engaged in co-mar­ket­ing projects for the pro­mo­tion of their respec­tive brands, to acquire new tar­gets in the fruition of the site, in the opti­miza­tion of dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels and eco­nomic resources.

In the case of the Plains of Olive trees, the UNESCO recog­ni­tion requires the gov­ern­ment and all pri­vate enti­ties to imple­ment a man­age­ment plan geared towards its preser­va­tion. This tool will allow us to find all the suit­able instru­ments to pre­serve the sus­tain­able farm­ing meth­ods and the care of tra­di­tional olive grow­ing, thus pro­tect­ing the land­scape and its bio­di­ver­sity.

At what point in the process is the pro­posal?

We are prepar­ing the pro­posal, but the per­ma­nent lab­o­ra­tory sup­port­ing the nom­i­na­tion has already been enriched by many sub­jects in the com­mu­nity. Local author­i­ties, farm­ers, oil pro­duc­ers, tourism and agri­tourism busi­nesses, cul­tural and envi­ron­men­tal asso­ci­a­tions, schools and train­ing insti­tu­tions, are united to achieve the goal, in the belief that the land­scape of the plain of mon­u­men­tal groves of Puglia con­fig­ures an area unique in the world for its exten­sion and the homo­gene­ity of the mil­lenar­i­ani olive groves, with its plants hav­ing extra­or­di­nar­ily beau­ti­ful mighty and twisted trunks.

They are real mon­u­ments of nature, that is a liv­ing nature, still pro­duc­ing olives and oil; the same one that, in the old times, Messapi (the ancient inhab­i­tants of Puglia), Romans, Byzantines, Angevins, Aragonese and Spanish tasted. The Plain’s tra­di­tional olive groves, with 40 – 50 plants per hectare, are one of the old­est agri­cul­tural areas of the Mediterranean, enriched by the numer­ous his­tor­i­cal, cul­tural, archae­o­log­i­cal and archi­tec­tural evi­den­cies, and it is unique in the world, as it still pro­duc­tive after more than 2000 years of life.

The pro­ce­dure for sub­mis­sion of the pro­posal will end on February, 28.

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