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Thematic Areas
1. SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL FRAMEWORK
- The impact of global climatic change and its destabilising effects
on natural environment;
- Categories of natural World Heritage: criteria i, ii, iii and
iv of the World Heritage Convention – outmoded or contemporary?
- Biodiversity and geodiversity in the rural and natural environment;
- Globalisation: rural environment and ecological limits;
- The relationship between rural settlements and their surroundings;
- Pollution in natural heritage sites: prevention, management and
solutions;
- Threats to natural heritage sites: poaching, illegal fishing,
invasive species, intensive deforestation, mining, pollution, over-visitation,
road construction, natural disasters, etc.: policies and methodologies
to anticipate, to mitigate and to fight them: a comparative survey.
- Environmental interdisciplinarity and planning. New perspectives
in evolution;
- Conservation and protection of toponymy;
- Conservation and protection of marine heritage;
- Conservation and protection of forests;
- Conservation and protection of sacred natural heritage sites;
- Environment and socio-economic development;
- Water management: perspectives for natural heritage;
- Sustainable economic development opportunities in and around natural
protected heritage sites;
- Participatory decision-making processes and natural heritage sites’
management;
- Communities living in or around natural heritage sites: Inevitable
conflicts or opportunities to develop?
- Governance – management structures, participation, accountability
and transparency in the field of natural heritage sites conservation;
- Natural heritage and conservation policies: should they be contradictory?
2. VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE AND NATURAL HERITAGE
- New technologies applied to bio-climatic design in natural and
rural areas;
- Traditional building systems and their preservation in protected
natural heritage sites;
- Tradition and technology in protected natural heritage sites;
- Ecosystems in the rural environment: planning and management;
- Ecological architecture in rural and natural environment;
- Protective measures, thesaurus, inventories and cataloguing;
- Traditional crafts in rural and natural environment;
- Natural protected areas and the development of local communities.
3. DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION OF NATURAL HERITAGE
- The role of mediation in sustainable development;
- Land development and rural natural heritage;
- European funds for regional development relating to the conservation
of natural heritage;
- Visitors’ Centres, eco-museums and museums in protected
natural areas. Leisure and services in protected natural areas:
examples of initiatives respecting the sites;
- Preventive conservation of nature;
- Conservation and integrated management of natural protected areas;
- Diagnosis, preliminary studies and protective measures;
- Management of private property in protected natural areas;
- Creation and integration of economic activities in the management
of protected natural areas. Incentive policies;
- Archaeological heritage in the context of a natural environment;
- The role of NGOs in natural heritage sites’ management,
fund-raising, research and policy-development;
- A summary of financing levels for natural heritage sites in developing
countries – comparative survey;
- Natural heritage issues dealt with by inter-governmental bodies
(UNESCO/WHC and WHF, FAO, IUCN, World Bank, UNDP, etc.). Their organizational
structures: is there room for improvement?
- The role of the international community in the conservation of
natural heritage sites – multi- and bilateral legal instruments,
policies and financing mechanisms.
4. TOURISM AND NATURAL HERITAGE
- Tourism and management of natural and rural heritage;
- Intangible heritage associated with natural and rural environment:
an additional asset for tourism;
- Protective and preventive measures and mitigation against tourism
drawbacks and over-visitation;
- Protected natural sites’ tourism visitation, carrying capacity
and exhaustion: indicators, methodology, perspectives and standards
to measure tourism impact, especially relating to the inscription
of natural sites on the World Heritage List. This should also include
the socio-economic impact;
- Best practice experiences applied to protected natural heritage;
- Natural heritage and the tourism industry: history, results and
perspectives.
5. EDUCATION, TRAINING AND AWARENESS RAISING FOR THE CONSERVATION
OF NATURAL HERITAGE.
- Experiences of different universities. Training opportunities;
- Education to environment: overview, comparative study, trends and perspectives;
- European programmes of education to environment;
- Job market and natural heritage: current career and employment opportunities
for university students and future perspectives.
- Awareness-raising of local communities: have environmental sciences
produced changes in behaviours and attitudes towards natural heritage
conservation?
- The educational aspects of tourism (training of local guides and communities,
training of international guides, awareness-raising of travellers). The
respective roles of universities and the tourism industry in training
local and international guides in natural heritage sites’ presentation
and interpretation.
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