In October 2018, the AlpFoodway project officially initiated the process for inscribing Alpine food heritage on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. The project partners hope that this inscription will be the end result of this transnational project, started in 2016 and co-financed by Interreg Alpine Space, which aims at safeguarding local food traditions and landscapes and at bringing out an element of identity shared throughout the Alps.
The 14 project partners coming from 6 alpine countries invite all stakeholders, institutions, businesses, citizens to sign the petition on www.alpfoodway.eu. The aim is to reach 50,000 signatures!
The AlpFoodway partners have also published the “Alpine Food Heritage Charter” along with the petition, a participatory document that calls on every citizen, association, company, institution, and authority, who cares about the future of the Alps, to assume responsibility in ensuring the safeguarding of Alpine Food Heritage and to support its nomination to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The goal is to build up support for this UNESCO nomination by October 2019, when the AlpFoodway final conference will be organised. This petition will then serve as basis for the UNESCO nomination, which is an important way for communities to safeguard and responsibly valorise traditional knowledge, productive landscapes, sustainable supply chains, unique cultures for the benefit of all.
Through www.alpfoodway.eu, it is also possible to access an online inventory that will include more than 150 entries about Alpine food knowledge, rituals, customs and traditions, by the end of the project, resulting from anthropological, geographical, sociological and historical research. The inventory is being built according to the principles of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003).
11 December 2018
