Regional Network of Heritage Watchers of the Central-South Valley and Northern Cauca

(Colombia)

(Colombia)

Starting point

The groups of heritage watchers, attached to the national program guided by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia, we have developed voluntary work in our territories of origin, focused on the recognition, protection and safeguarding of local heritage in an individual and isolated way, without considering that the region of the center and south of the Department of Valle and north of Cauca of which we are part, has a biodiverse, multiethnic and multicultural wealth, which includes municipalities lacking protection, promotion and dissemination, witnesses of irregularities or omissions in the safeguarding and promotion of cultural and natural heritage values, which are the object of the Development Programs with a Territorial Approach PDET.

Formation of the Regional Network

In this opportunity it is about scaling the impact of the actions towards a network integration process with the purpose of exchanging experiences and establishing joint community tourism routes, to achieve greater impact in achieving social equity and mitigating climate change from the figure of heritage watchers, promoted by the Ministry of Cultures as part of the national system of culture in Colombia.

We seek to energize support networks initially among eight (8) groups of heritage watchers in Cali, Buga, Tuluá and Florida in the center and south of Valle del Cauca and Puerto Tejada in the north of the department of Cauca, to qualify our experience in our work of identification, protection, promotion and safeguarding of natural and cultural heritage in our territories, contributing to the construction of total peace.

This exchange has started from the recognition of the members of the Regional Network and its trajectory; from listening to the approaches and results achieved by the groups of watchers in their different origins; from walking together our spaces and listening about the attractions of the proposed community tourism routes, reaching a great group symbiosis.

The Community Tourism Routes

By advancing an articulated process with the groups of heritage watchers of the Regional Network of central-southern Valle and northern Cauca, we managed to move from the local dimension to a broader reading of the territory, integrating ourselves not only in the identification of problems and needs, but with the implementation of actions that make visible our proposal of community tourism routes from the perspective of cultural and natural heritage, to make visible the small artisan offerer and local gastronomy, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development objectives SDGs.

To this end, each of the groups of watchmen members of the Regional Network was asked to determine a particular territory to identify the natural and cultural heritage elements present in it, both tangible and intangible, in order to group them in a proposal for a community tourism route. Community Tourism in Colombia is understood as the opportunity to offer tourism services by an organized community that participates, gets involved and benefits from the different links in the tourism production chain. Recently, the World Tourism Organization and the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism created a call called: "Innovation Challenge in Community Tourism: Colombia", in order to highlight the importance of community tourism, protect its heritage and generate tangible benefits for local communities.

In order to facilitate the work of promoting the community tourism route proposed by each of the Regional Network's watchdog groups, they were asked for their map, photos and information on the points included, in order to design the graphic communication pieces for each route, deliver them in digital file for their dissemination and print them later for promotion by the groups. These are the promotional graphic pieces of the 8 tourist routes proposed:

The community tourism routes of the Regional Network of Heritage Watchers of Central - South Valle and North Cauca, Colombia.

For futher information: redvigiascentrosurvalleycauca@gmail.com

Tourism Route