Rzeszów-Eger Resolution on traditional rural landscapes of the Carpathian region

Abstract

The Resolution identifies traditional rural landscapes of the Carpathian region as the most precious bio-cultural legacy of the long-lasting adaptive relationship between rural communities and the surrounding nature. Globalization, agricultural intensification, and specialization, as well as the progressing urbanization of the countryside, increasingly lead to societies' detachment from their original, rural, identity. Grant-based initiatives cannot prevent the ultimate loss of traditional landscapes. Their preservation requires new policies allowing and encouraging the rural communities to develop their economies in harmony of their traditions and in accordance with natural knowledge, complemented with state-of-the-art scientific and technological assets. Only such an approach, based on local economies, could perpetuate large blocks of working high nature and cultural values landscapes.