The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Ana Leiva, inaugurated today, in Nájera, La Rioja, the course “Vineyard landscapes: Ethnography as a tool for their study and protection”.

The opening of the seminar, organised by the Monastery of Santa María La Real School of Historical Heritage, with the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation, brought together senior officials from the Administrations, specialists from the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Ministry of Culture and the Regulatory Council of the Rioja Qualified Designation, as well as representatives of wineries in the area.

The course is proposed as a meeting place to analyse the economic, environmental and social benefits that cultural landscapes generate, within the framework of the postulates of the European Landscape Convention. It is a matter of placing the emphasis, in particular, on the landscapes of vine cultivation and on everything related to the culture associated with wine.

Man and vine are the two terms of this interrelationship that the specialists will address to examine the current opportunities of the wine industry in Spain and enhance the sustainability of rural development.