8th Intergovernmental Meeting of 7 States and Representative Communities
Stari Grad, CROATIA, 06th and 07th June 2018
Town Library
CONCLUSIONS
National delegations:
Croatia: Mirna Bojić, Mladen Kuhar (Ministry of Culture), Tatjana Horvatić (Head of Service for Movable Ethnographic and Intangible Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture), Jelena Ivanisevic, Melanija Belaj (researchers at the Institute for Ethnological and Folklore) and Silvija Pavičić (Representative of Emblematic Community).
Cyprus: Demetris Papanicolaou (Department of Agriculture), Mersilia Anastasiadou (Cyprus Food and Nutrition Museum), Nicky Kafkalia (Representative of the emblematic community of Agros).
Greece: Rena Kosti, Ioulia Georgitsanakou (Ministry of Rural Development and Food) and
Vasiliki Inglezou (Maniatakeion Foundation, Representative of the emblematic community of
Koroni).
Italy: Stefano Pisani (Mayor of Pollica), Valerio Calabrese (Museo Vivente della Dieta Mediterranea), Lia Luchetti and Alessandro Zagarella (UNESCO Expert in Ministry of Food Agriculture and Forest).
Morocco: Mohamed Reda Zitan (Representative of the emblematic community of Chefchaouen)
Portugal: Jorge Botelho (Mayor of Tavira), Jorge Queiroz (Head of Tavira Culture, Heritage and
Museums Division), António Rego (Senior Advisor of the Secretary of State for Forestry and Rural Development ), Maria Custódia Correia (Portuguese National Rural Network manager, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development) and Francisco Sarmento (Food Science Specialist).
Spain: Juan Manuel Ruiz Liso (General Director of Fundación Cientifica Caja Rural de Soria,
Representative of the emblematic community of Soria).
First session of the 8th coordination meeting was held on the 06th of June 2018 and was opened
to public as an opportunity to share good practices between MD communities. Second session
of the meeting, held on the 07th June 2018, was closed for the public and intended to be for discussion on several aspects of MD network, namely common and shared projects.
Agenda
1. Greetings by the Croatian authorities.
Vice Mayor of Stari Grad, Žaneta Roić, welcomed participants of the meeting and highlighted
commitment of Stari Grad and other local island communities to safeguarding shared MD
heritage and values. Tatjana Horvatić, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, expressed honour to
organise coordination meeting of seven countries and reaffirmed the wish for successful and
fruitful meeting.
2. Presentation of activities on the national and emblematic community level. The delegations presented reports on the activities carried out in 2017/2018.
Spain presented activities within Soria emblematic community where is MD through aspects of food, culture, history, environment, health, tradition, education, research, sport and sustainability. Most of activities are dedicated to young generations to learn and transmit them healthy diet habits (Health guide, Decalogue of the MD and Culture, MD breakfast, Bulletin “Soria Salud”, Promotion of Soria products, National week of the MD, Special Eatable Park, Photo and Literary Contests.
Portugal presented their coordination between national (Preparation of project “Revitalization of the Mediterranean Diet through the development of sustainable agricultural and food systems”, presentation of MD in different Portuguese regions and cities and at the III National Convention of Cultural and Historical Heritage – Tavira), regional (Mediterranean Diet
Safeguarding Plan for Algarve Region : 2018 – 2021) and local level (Tavira Action plan for MD: Heritage Inventory, “MD all the year” programme, MD exhibition, education in museum, children book and videos, 6th MD Fair).
Morocco gave a presentation about MD strategy of Chefchaouen Community which has four
axes: Preservation and valorisation of the heritage (Museum, care for cultural heritage, biodiversity garden, touristic route, street signalization), Enhancement of capacity (Territorial
quality brand, training of professionals, traditional markets, cooperation with local producers,
MD label), Awareness raising and communication (workshops, web site, museum activities) and
Governance and Alliances (Monitoring Committee, multisectorial coordination, link with researchers, communication with MD network). Second topic was presentation of month of Ramadan, special diet and health aspects as part of Mediterranean diet.
Italy reported on the recent innovation of the national legal framework, in particular with specific act aimed at supporting intangible cultural heritage and Mediterranean diet. A specific committee was established at the Ministry of agriculture, counting representative from National and local authorities and from emblematic community, in order to better manage the element
at the national level. Comune di Pollica and The living museum of the Mediterranean diet coordinate activities in emblematic community of Cilento (education on food and ecology, organisation of events, excursions, cooking courses, and the Festival of the Mediterranean diet).
Developed brand of Mediterranean life “I Live Mediterranean” support local economy in agro- food and tourism sector: I Eat Mediterranean: a quality brand of local gastronomy, I produce the Mediterranean: a network between farmers and restaurant owners and I sleep the
Mediterranean: the tourist hospitality in the territory in respect of the principles of the diet.
Greece presented several different approaches in promotion and development of Municipality
of Pylos-Nestor as MD emblematic community (Traditional MD Festival in Koroni, Ellados Gefsi – A Taste of Greece exhibitions, participation in “Finest Greek Tastes” network under EU LEADER program, participation at conferences dedicated to the foundations of MD (olive oil, healthy
diet), participation in interdisciplinary project InHeriT. Ministry of Rural Development and Food organized meeting with the Ministry of Culture, Maniatakeion Foundation representative and Technical Advisor of the Emblematic Community and Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of
Chania to improve promotion of MD.
Cyprus presented implemented projects (Md net, GEO star and Geo in), activities in the Emblematic community of Agros, map of local food producers and activities of Cyprus Food and Nutrition Museum (First national conference dedicated to the traditional Cypriot cuisine and participation within Europeana Food and Drink Program).
Croatia presented activities of civil organisations and initiatives, local producers, local authorities and institutions within emblematic community of Brač and Hvar, related to education of children and promotion of MD values from different aspects such as local
production (wine, fruits, vegetables, olive oil, traditional meals), traditional culinary (seasonal meals, sweets), religious customs, festivals and markets celebrating main products (wine, olive oil, lavender, aronia, asparagus, dorm mouse etc.), health and care for landscape (maintenance
of the island paths, drystone walls, villages, biking, hiking).
3. Mediterranean Diet Museum Network Proposal of the Museum Network Agreement, by the Italian emblematic community.
After discussion on the proposed Agreement, all delegates expressed their content with the draft version of the document. At this moment, members of the MD Museum network are Museo Vivente della Dieta Mediterranea, Muzej Općine Jelsa, Museu Municipal de Tavira and Cyprus Food and Nutritional Museum (online), with a wish that all emblematic communities nominate their representatives within existing museums or new established MD museums.
It was concluded that each of the emblematic communities should have only one museum as a member of this network, which can coordinate activities and collaborate with other museums at local and national level.
It was noted that only the museums could sign this Agreement of MD Museum Network even though support of the local authorities is fundamental. Italian MD Museum Network coordinator will send the new version of the document to be signed in each of this Museum by its directors.
It should be further discussed if the private museum and collection are suited for this network.
4. Proposal of shared digital collection of MD
Croatian proposal in its coordination year was presented by the Koraljka Kuzman Šlogar (Head of the Archive of The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research). She presented new digital collection called Mediterranean Diet at the Institute’s Digital Repository (https://repozitorij.dief.eu/) intended as a shared archive of ethnological data (video, photo, manuscripts etc.) of the 7 emblematic communities of MD. Call for ethnological data was given to all delegates to be shared at their local communities to all potential participants. All materials will be upload by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Archive staff, kept on the Institute’s server and be available online. Only material with no copyright and personal data restrictions will be available as an open source for the research purposes.
5. Coordinator report on the national activities
Croatia presented activities regarding given task on reactivation of the web site www.mediterradiet.org and activities in Croatia on national level that included preparation of National report, educative and promotional activities, bilateral cultural cooperation with Portugal, Establishment of Repository for scientific cooperation and Educational Program for museum curators on MD.
Following the task from the Meeting in Portugal, Croatia reactivated the web site www.mediterradiet.org with up to date info on coordination country, upload of the conclusions
of the previous meeting and announcement for the contest for Mediterranean Diet literature
story and photography. Croatia will improve description of emblematic community Brač and Hvar. Croatia invited countries to check the web site, to update and improve the content, and to support first joint web site. Prepared material could be sent to all other official web sites dedicated to Mediterranean Diet (Italy, Portugal etc.). More web sites will contribute to visibility of the MD.
In accordance with the proposal of Greece, that each coordination country should be responsible for the web site in their coordination year, Greece is invited to prepare written conditions for coordination of the web site, regarding finances and relations with CIHAEM.
Countries will receive proposal for their consideration in a due course.
Italy announced redesign of the web site dedicated to the MD dietamedunesco.it, including
change of the domain and logos, self-managed section for contributors and internationalization of the contents. According to the emerged problems about the cost of maintaining the common website and to the issues related to the intellectual property at the EU and international level, considering the fact that the Italian web-site is search engine friendly, Italy invited countries to use it as joint MD web site, also transferring there contents and domain of the present one. As requested by the other delegation, Italian delegation will send in a short time a formal proposal to all meeting’s participants for deciding about the adoption of the website as a joint one.
6. Proposal from Portugal Delegation
Francisco Sarmento (Food Policy Specialist), presented project proposal on the topic of local
food production, intended to strengthen capacities of small farmers and food producers. All
delegations appreciated this proposal and stressed its great importance to MD values. According
to the planned project agenda, project proposal should be finalised until the 30 July, therefore, countries will be contacted regarding the examination to become potential project partners.
Portugal delegation members emphasized necessity of creating and implementing food policies
on national, regional and local level in order to preserve and develop sustainable food system in the framework of MD shared cultural heritage. Portugal delegation was asked to send a short description of the project draft and update with more precise collaboration proposal to all participants of the meeting.
Italy and Portugal proposed for the future to organize the agenda of the forthcoming meeting giving evidence to the issues involving States party and communities, in order to have a more efficient process and to assure both to States and to communities specific moment of discussion. All the representatives approved the proposal.
MD Croatian Coordination of seven Countries and Representative Communities
Stari Grad, June 15th 2018
