Bibracte: a landscape in common
Grand Site de France - Morvan des Sommets, Morvan Regional Natural Park, Burgundy, France
Bibracte is a unique heritage site of research and territorial experimentation located in Burgundy, in
the heart of the Morvan Massif, a rural area of central France.
The Morvan Massif combines characteristics shared by many European mountain territories:
- a significant demographic decline throughout the 20th century (-80%) which is reflected in particular by a
strong agricultural decline and a significant disinvestment in the management of the space; - an agricultural production system that has been simplified within the framework of the European CAP, making it very vulnerable to the new factors of instability at the beginning of the 21st century (climate change, political instability and unpredictability of international trade, etc.);
- increased forestry challenges, in proportion to the doubling of the forest area during the 20th century and the implementation of highly industrialised forestry practices that are now severely challenged by climate change and by social acceptance;
- a distance from the major urban centres that places the area away from certain advantages and difficulties that the city provides.
The co-construction and the implementation with the heritage community including inhabitants and visitors of a Creative Tourism new offer around a flagship tourist route developed within the frame of the H2020 INCULTUM project will be the meeting point for the local multi-sectorial entrepreneurship projects and social innovations. This 140 km long cultural route links the villages by making the best use of the existing network of paths.
To do this, BIBRACTE will continue to use the GSF project area as an experimental territory, by broadening the range of heritage resources mobilised, particularly in the field of water heritage (consistent with and complementary to the COUDRIER project). The project will widely mobilise the scientific and technical skills and socio-professional partners already involved in various capacities with BIBRACTE and will involve the tourists and the locals in the creation of the tourist product.
12 villages inhabitants, elected representatives, partners of the GSF label, local socioeconomic actors, more specifically those involved in the landscape management: agriculture, forestry, tourism, etc., visitors and tourists.
- to systematise the evaluation of the relevance of place attachment of the population to its living environment as a lever for building an active Heritage Community capable of developing an integrated, inclusive and sustainable territorial project; as indicated earlier, special attention will be given to the active involvement of younger people under 30 and of the aging population, in particular citizens over 65, to counteract depopulation and preserve and develop the HC’s unique offerings and identities;
- to develop a method to encourage the constitution of active heritage communities and their empowerment on the scale of rural territories;
- to explore the means of reinforcing the circular economy of the territory based on the virtues of the heritage communities, in particular concerning the payment for services (the maintenance of heritage resources) and the creation of links / hybridisation between the different economic sectors (tourism and services, agriculture, forestry) to mutualize the competences and the means of the territory and to diversify the economic resources of the local actors;
- evaluate to what extent the engagement of the inhabitants and tourists in an active heritage community, ensuring gender, equality and diversity, allows the development of cultural, creative and sustainable tourism practices that respect all the biotic and abiotic components of the territory and are more broadly concerned with reducing their ecological impact.
- use the virtues of heritage communities to strengthen the circular economy of the territory (Farm to Fork strategy, local products and markets promotion, etc.).
- Réseau des Grands Sites de France, the network leader of fifty or so territories at the national scale.
- Parc naturel régional du Morvan, as an operating partner of the Grand Site de France Bibracte - Morvan des Sommets
The international dimension is relevant for Bibracte because of the importance of its connections in the European scientific community and even more widely in the community of heritage professionals, particularly within the framework of the international cooperation pole of the Réseau des Grands Sites de France.
Use the attachment of the inhabitants for heritage and landscape as a vector for social cohesion and action, through the constitution of an active heritage community
Create “territorial intelligence”, particularly in the tourism sector, through a shared diagnosis
Guarantee the coherence and sustainability of the territorial project through an integrated approach using territorial entrepreneurship as a tool for making different sectors of activity that shape the landscape and the economy working together
