IADIZA   20886
INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE INVESTIGACIONES DE LAS ZONAS ARIDAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
DESERT OBSERVATORIES: A STRATEGY FOR HIGHLIGHTING THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF MENDOZA’S DRYLANDS
Autor/es:
PASTOR, GABRIELA C.
Lugar:
Sede Boquer
Reunión:
Conferencia; Third International Conference on Drylands, Deserts and Desertification: The Route to Restoration; 2010
Institución organizadora:
Ben Gurion University, Sede Boqer Campus,
Resumen:
Desert observatories are heritage reservoirs, that is, they reflect territorial culture and the development styles used in their construction (Gómez Orea, 2002; Pastor, 2008). Observation of the landscape is a source of information that allows its comprehensiveness as an indicator of territorial phenomena. It also allows establishment of warning mechanisms on transformation processes while facilitating and promoting appraisal of the cultural landscape. The implementation of mechanisms favouring landscape visibility, encouraging a heritage perspective of the territory, and proposing accessible interpretative experiences, finds a high-efficiency strategy in desert observatories. The development of a network of observatories represents a high-impact action to enhance knowledge and diffusion of Mendoza’s territorial culture, where the desert appears as an “invisible space” (Montaña et al, 2005). The present communication displays the results and transfer of a research project, launched by the Secretary of Culture of Mendoza Province, set up to develop the scientific-technical bases for a network of observatories of the desert landscape as a strategy to achieve knowledge and sustainable restoration of the heritage of Mendoza’s drylands. The territory in question is inhabited by groups of “huarpes”; its landscape reveals the multiplicity of actors that built this space and endowed it with a historical breadth that denotes territorial complexity. In the words of Molina (1995), an “ethno territory”, which we can portray as very rich in cultural heritage, where the serious desertification processes affecting the area continue to advance, modifying the ecosystems and eroding not only the capacities of the soil but also the knowledge related to the territory and its landscape, among other problems (Torres et al, 2005). Grounded on the consideration that landscape construction processes involve a construction-deconstruction continuum, the strategy introduced here prioritizes the outlook on desert cultural landscapes, articulating landscape interpretation and rehabilitation of the cultural heritage with a view to provide grounds for the sustainability of desert landscapes and at the same time encourage and tighten the bonds between citizens and their territory.