European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21 st century „ Page 24 Recommendation S7 Develop and promote participatory heritage identification programmes Heritage must first of all be identified before populations can recognise it and take ownership and before any management and promotion processes can get underway. For citizens, involvement in these participatory schemes is a source of personal fulfilment; it also draws attention to the immediate environment, which then has wider repercussions. The sense of belonging to a region and awareness of the importance of a quality living environment are heightened; and this stimulates a sense of collective responsibility for the heritage. Relevant challenges S2 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 Interfaces K1 K2 K3 D3 Courses of action „ Create collaborative platforms for the joint drawing up of inventories „ Develop participatory heritage identification programmes and projects at various territorial levels, with the assistance of experts and designed for different audiences (adults, children, elderly people, etc.) „ Provide support for theme-specific inventories „ Encourage projects fostering the pooling of a diverse range of skills „ Promote projects fostering the contextualisation of the items that have been identified, and making sure that by classifying them as heritage they are not divorced from their natural setting and context „ Implement projects tying in with training sessions and public feedback sessions „ Attach priority to inventories of endangered or threatened heritage assets Target audience: local, regional, national Example of action „ Action carried out under the Interreg (EU) projects adopting this heritage approach, e.g. “Trans- Formation du patrimoine”: http://muap.be/projets/le-projet-trans-formation-du-patrimoine-interreg-iv Recommendation S8 Encourage heritage rehabilitation initiatives by local communities and authorities Alongside the acknowledged heritage, there are other sites, objects, customs, activities, traditions and the people who keep them alive, that can be recognised by citizens as a constantly evolving expression of their values, knowledge and beliefs. Efforts must be made to ensure that these often unrecognised forms of heri- tage are not neglected. Support must be given to the efforts of local authorities and the population to save whole swathes of their collective memory from oblivion, using tangible and intangible means - with priority given to the most fragile among them. It is important to support and assist initiatives which, with the local population, will help ensure the oral transmission of cultural heritage and preserve its memory. The local population are the prime ambassadors of their territory, for their own interest and that of newly settled residents and tourists. Relevant challenges S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S8 Interfaces D1 D4 K1 K2 K3 K8 Courses of action „ Increase citizens’ knowledge of and information on heritage in order to enable them to participate in an informed way „ Showcase efforts by local communities to reveal and rehabilitate forgotten heritage (identification and discovery, upkeep, promotion)