The delicate relationship between capitalization and impoverishment of cultural and landscape resources in the context of Strategic Environmental Assessment of municipal master plans: a case study concerning Tertenia, Sardinia (Italy)

Qualitative enhancement, protection and promotion of cultural and landscape resources are increasing in political terms, and represent important tools to directly and indirectly support and implement local development-related policies. Investments on projects concerning these policies may possibly imply positive impacts on tourism as well. However, the integration of policies, aimed at promoting cultural and landscape heritage into programs concerning tourism, is quite problematic, since it is evident that the capitalization of these heritage and resources is very often connected to their devaluation at the local and global scales, despite the fallacy that the implementation of tourism-related policies supports sustainable development. Under this perspective, municipal master plans (MMPs) can be considered as the most important and effective planning tools at the local level. In particular, in 2006 the Sardinian local government approved the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP), which underlines the strategic importance of natural and cultural heritage. The RLP establishes that MMPs have to comply with its Planning Implementation Code (PIC), which may possibly catalyze a radical renewal of MMPs, and address local planning policies towards enhancement, protection and promotion of cultural and landscape resources by attracting private investments. In the RLP’s planning framework, the delicate relationship between capitalization and impoverishment of cultural and landscape resources is an issue that is currently generating a theoretical and technical debate. The theoretical and technical framework of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) integrates environmental protection and sustainable development-related questions into the definition and implementation processes of MMPs. The Sardinian government issued a Guidelines Manual (Annex to the Decision of the regional government of Sardinia (DRG) n. 44/51 of 14 December 2010), which not only ensures formally that an inclusive and incremental SEA process related to MMPs is implemented, but also defines rigorously the steps a SEA proceeding authority, that is a municipality or a province, has to take in order to favor participation of all potentially-interested subjects. The SEA processes ruled by DRG n. 2010/44/51 are very effective to implement strategies for enhancement and promotion of cultural and landscape resources and their capitalization as well.