What is an
eco-museum
The Eco-museum is a structure that manages the protection and development of natural and cultural heritage for local development. The basic principle of the Eco-Museum is that the monuments of a region remain “in situ” reflecting live testimonies of a specific era.
Communication with visitors includes aspects of social life, production processes, socioeconomic and natural history of the site. So the Eco-museum is “alive” with its action and “open” to the world.
What is an
eco-museum
At the same time, it interprets the intellectual, social and economic development of the local population, which is directly related to the natural environment and its effects on the determination of its particular spontaneity. The field of action of an Eco-museum can be extended to all the common goods of the local geographical area and its population and to deal with a number of objectives
Rural Communities
Cultural Heritage
No Walls
Objectives of an Eco-museum
The Eco-museum is a place of memory, participating in the enhancement of the local identity. It can organize educational activities that help and teach the local traditions to the younger generations.
The Eco-museum can propose integration activities in the labour market, for people with social difficulties, with projects such as conservation and maintenance of the traditional paths or restoration of traditional buildings and monuments.
Given that the natural environment is at the same time a valuable resource and a comparative advantage that can help local development, the Eco-museum must ensure its protection and demonstration. In this spirit, conferences and scientific symposiums can be organized, in order to highlight, and promote the unique Landscape and anthropogenic environment of the area.
In Europe, the recovery and growth of a remote region through the Eco-museum has helped to maintain its population that already existed with the parallel attraction of new citizens. People from the urban areas of the country have found themselves with much more opportunities to work, away from the main capital and with a better quality of life. The Eco-museum contributes to the improvement of the quality of life while exceptionally pointing out the very dynamics of each region.
It is obvious that tourism can play a major role in this direction. The Eco-Museum is the amagalmation of natural and cultural heritage, whilst contributing to the improvement of the tourist product at the same time. Cultural tourism, and ecotourism are "moderate" forms of tourism development, exemplifying the most recent models of sustainable thematic tourism. Typically, the operation of an Eco-Museum concerns two areas: The "indoor" museum, which consists the center of interpretation for the natural and human history of the area and the outdoor one, which includes in an exhibition style, all its cultural and natural monuments. Visits routes (both indoor and outdoor) accompanied by the appropriate organization, will ensure the diffusion of knowledge so as to understand the cultural, natural, social and economic changes of the area, in order to highlight the local identity of the past and present.