Local communities – custodians of their cultural and natural heritage

Community involvement is crucial in the maintenance and protection of tangible and intangible heritage. The essential sense of ownership cannot be achieved without taking into consideration community needs and ensuring effective participation. By today‘s order the Regional Administrative Court has granted temporary protection to modern architecture building whose listing as immovable cultural heritage has been initiated by local community.

Cultural heritage treasures are first and foremost precious communal assets that show the past human legacy. It depicts present and future way of life as well as cultural values of a society and enhances solidarity and social integration of communities. Heritage conservation is purely declaratory without proper management, monitoring and evaluation, funds and stakeholder involvement, proper attitudes towards cultural heritage and community concern, on site measures preventing vandalism and illicit trafficking.

Once vibrant and modern, built to house the workers of one of the most powerful nuclear power plants in the former USSR, the Lithuanian town of Visaginas has found itself in the midst of an existential crisis. Visaginas community has mobilised to protect its modernist architecture the visual identity of the city.

The Law on Local Self-Government sets out the basic principles on which local self-government is based. These include inter alia accountability to the municipal community (members of the municipal council and the mayor are responsible and accountable to the municipal community for their activities); reconciliation of the interests of the municipal community and the interests of the individual inhabitants of the municipality (decisions taken by the municipal authorities in the interests of the municipal community must not infringe the rights of individual inhabitants guaranteed by law); participation of the municipality’s inhabitants in the management of municipal affairs (municipalities shall inform local inhabitants about their activities, draft decisions, decisions taken and shall enable local inhabitants to participate directly in the planning and implementation of municipal decisions); and responsiveness to the opinions of the municipality’s inhabitants (municipal institutions and bodies shall, within the framework of their competences and in accordance with the law, assess and respond in a reasoned manner to the proposals submitted by the inhabitants of the municipality or their representatives). Exclusion of local communities in taking planning decisions is illegal.

At ReLex we feel inspired working with motivated local communities in preservation of natural and cultural heritage sites.

ReLex

Share:


Address

Konstitucijos pr. 7, Vilnius LT-09308