The 7th Annual Conference on Heritage Issues in Contemporary Society “Nature & Culture: Heritage in Context” took place in Prague from the 16th to 19th May 2016 and explored the link between nature and culture in an interconnected series of events designed to highlight different ways of thinking about heritage, nature and their interface. Nicos Georgiadis from MedINA’s scientific secretariat attended the conference and made a presentation on the second day titled “Towards an approach to integrate culture and nature for better conservation outcomes”. For a short description of this and other presentations please download the book of abstracts.
This conference was the 7th in a series of annual conferences exploring the relevance of heritage in present-day society. Based on the premise that all disciplines in the humanities, social or natural sciences are affected by either culture, nature or, more often, both, the conference stressed the need for inter- and multi-disciplinary conservation and preservation efforts among researchers and professionals. It presented the increased efforts being undertaken by various stakeholders in order to achieve the conservation of integrated natural and cultural systems that will lead to higher adaptability and resilience, critical outcomes in the era of climate change.
MedINA being one of these stakeholders, has been working on at the interface of nature and culture since 2003. The presentation made by Nicos Georgiadis was based on the approach developed by MedINA’s scientific secretariat in the framework of the MAVA funded project “Towards an Integrated Approach for the Sustainable Management of Mediterranean Natural and Cultural Heritage”.
The participants of the conference came from a range of disciplines from landscape architects, anthropologists and archaeologist to biologists and environmental scientists. The event was sponsored by the Center for Heritage & Society at the University of Massachusetts, in conjunction with the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences.