Olive groves as cultural landscape

Cultural landscape is a complex term, defining the joint creation of nature and human intervention. It is defined by UNESCO as: "Combined works of nature and humankind, they express a long and intimate relationship between peoples and their natural environment." This definition perfectly fits to the olive groves of Türkiye, not only in the Aegean region but also along the Mediterranean coast, Southeast Anatolia, and mild temperate climates of the Black Sea region, such as Artvin, towards Georgia. Olive-growing regions of Anatolia have cuisines totally shaped around olive oil and olives, especially salt-cured black olives are part of daily fare on the tables, especially being an indispensable part of Turkish breakfast. Our olive culture is now on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List as a cultural heritage element in danger that is in need of urgent safeguarding. The national nomination file is titled "Traditional Knowledge, Methods and Practices Concerning Olive Cultivation in Türkiye" covering all the olive growing regions of the country. The national application files were prepared by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, and the nomination was accepted and declared on Dec. 5, 2023.

This does not necessarily mean that the olive groves are registered as sites under protection, as to register a site as a cultural landscape element requires another procedure, but now, at this point, the olive growing culture is under safeguarding that will entail projects put into action in the near future. When we look at the files of the Ministry, the term olive culture is defined as: "Traditional Olive Cultivation" refers to the traditional knowledge, methods and practices that have been passed down for centuries on grafting, pruning and fertilizing the 'delice' [wild...