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Territorial conference on Loire Valley World Heritage - July 2008

Territorial conference on Loire Valley World Heritage - July 2008

Published on 03 July 2008 - Updated 22 December 2010
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 16 ans

Mission Val de Loire

On the agenda for the 2 July 2008 session: Strategic direction and priorities for Mission Val de Loire for 2008-10; Site and landscape management plan; Status management.

The Territorial Conference

The Territorial conference is the principal forum for discussion among the authorities responsible for the site and for debate on the major strategic directions for the management of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Loire Valley . This session was attended for the first time by representatives of the federations of communes from the inscribed site.

It is chaired collectively by:

- Jean-Michel Bérard, Prefect of the Centre Regional Authority and Coordinator of the Plan Loire Grandeur Nature (a development programme marrying individual security, environmental protection and economic development),

- François Bonneau, President of the Centre Regional Authority and of Mission Val de Loire,

- Jacques Auxiette, President of the Pays de la Loire Regional Authority, first Vice-President of Mission Val de Loire.

Strategic direction and priorities for Mission Val de Loire for 2008-10

In the new interregional cooperation protocol signed in Chaumont on 3 June, the Regional Presidents restated that the Loire is an underlying theme guiding their partnership and placed the Mission Val de Loire mixed interregional syndicate at the heart of their cooperation-building toolbox.

Five years after the creation of the Mission , a new phase is proposed to ensure that World Heritage-listing generates yet greater growth. We must strive to ensure increased consumer awareness, consolidated attractiveness to tourists, sustained economic growth and suitability for local people. The importance of these challenges explains the major involvement of executive members of these two Regional Authorities in the Mission , and their desire to implement an ambitious joint strategy.

The two Regional Authorities set the following priorities for their joint tool, Mission Val de Loire:

- The claiming of inscription values as their own by the people of the Loire Valley;

- Leadership shown to the actors and authorities with responsibility for the quality of and conservation of the inscribed Loire Valley ;

- Support for organisations contributing to the growing international reputation of the inscribed site, particularly the Regional Authorities themselves.

In close collaboration with the State, which is responsible for World Heritage status, the Centre and Pays de la Loire Regional Authorities wanted to involve the people of the Loire Valley in an innovative project which will boost regional identity and reputation.