Stefano Zannier, president of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation, offers a message for 2025.
As 2024 draws to a close, the time has arrived to set our course for the year ahead. In 2025, I will reach the end of my three-year mandate as president. The message I would like to give to all those who share in the opportunities and responsibilities associated with UNESCO status, whether at the administrative or personal level, is to continue working together with commitment and decision to hand down a living World Heritage Site to future generations, and one that is understood and appreciated by local communities.
Ph. Luciano Gaudenzio
It is collaboration between various administrative bodies, represented in the Foundation’s Board of Directors, that lies at the heart of shared management of the Property. Whilst recognising administrative and social diversity, different management problems and differing opinions on which measures to adopt, all areas and all communities clearly recognise the common goal of protecting this extraordinary region.
Cooperation therefore permeates all of the Foundations activities, which draw on the knowledge of technical personnel from provincial and regional administrations involved in managing the Property, brought together in “Operating Networks”. It can be challenging to operate through these Networks, and significant coordination efforts are required, but the approach guarantees high levels of expertise and a plurality of visions that is key to managing the Serial Property of the Dolomites. This special quality is recognised as a valuable characteristic internationally, every time we are called to share our experience in managing the Property.
The approach has also drawn on the many initiatives run in 2024, which it would be impossible to list exhaustively here, but which demonstrate how the Foundation and its Networks have worked in fields including geological interpretation of the Property, promotion of its landscapes and biodiversity, training of administrators, teachers and mountain-hut managers, inclusivity, communication of the Property’s values and reflection on the associated responsibilities.
In this regard, over recent months we have seen too many incidents that highlight how many visitors to Dolomites mountain landscapes approach the area with a lack of respect for the environment, their safety and that of those who have to intervene to rescue them. Too many visitors approach a visit to the mountains with superficiality, seeking information only on social media, underestimating the chosen route, overestimating their physical condition and wearing unsuitable clothing or footwear. The UNESCO Dolomites Foundation is working tirelessly, together with many other institutional parties and other groups, both to promote communication that induces visitors to the mountains to act more responsibly, and to educate visitors on the necessary prudence. Visiting and experiencing the Dolomites means immersing oneself in a journey through time and space that requires a slow pace, careful attention, an ability to read the landscape and an awareness of ones role in this fragile setting.
Herein lies my message for 2025… one of awareness. Only through greater awareness of the World Heritage Site can it truly be experienced, protected and appreciated with a respect for the profound balance between humans and nature.