Paper short abstract:

In Tuscany a group of people is struggling for the preservation of a small natural humid area. The paper will focus on how this community appropriated the heritage paradigm to reinforce (and embody) the narrative upon which their battle is based.

Paper long abstract:

In one of the most industrialized areas in Central Italy between Florence, Pistoia and Prato an informal group of people, is struggling for the preservation of a small natural humid area from the aggressive development of factories.

This group of people could be analyzed as a form of "heritage community" that according to the Faro Convention (2005) “consists of people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage which they wish, within the framework of public action, to sustain and transmit to future generations".

In 1997 this group obtained this area to be recognized, according to a Regional Law, as a “natural protected area”. The reality although is full of contradictions. Nearby some of the small lakes, rich in avifauna, hunting is practiced in open conflict against laws for the protection of natural areas. Nonetheless the group of hunters is functional in keeping this area constantly clean from the wild, not having the local Government enough resources to do that.

In the last years this heritage community started to preserve local memories trough interviews to old peasants on farming and fishing practices no more in use. In 2009 this group of people gave birth to an association, which installed an ethnographic collection mostly linked to the agricultural past, in an old farm within this natural area.

I will focus on how this heritage community, in fighting its daily battle, appropriated the concept of “cultural heritage” (tangible and intangible) and used it in their struggle for defending this natural area.