Community engagement is essential in heritage preservation and intepretation. People who live the heritage shall take care of it, and most be the first to get benefits from the economical activities around it.

I agree with Jorge Aquiles Marte Castillo the involvement of the local community is essential to all aspects of built heritage from identification, interpretation, restoration, stabilisation, conservation and ongoing management. You will find a lot of useful material on the ICOMOS website in relation to community engagement and empowerment in the heritage arena.

https://www.icomos.org/

In addition, community engagement can help to ensure that the cultural values and meanings of heritage are communicated and respected in heritage interpretation, rather than being reduced to mere facts and figures (International Council on Monuments and Sites, 2017). By engaging with local communities, heritage practitioners can develop a more nuanced and contextual understanding of heritage, and can ensure that the stories and experiences of diverse communities are integrated into the interpretation and presentation of heritage sites and resources.

Creation of Heritage has genesis in the commitment and work put in by the community and accordingly, heritage belongs to and has ownership of community. Heritage can be preserved, conserved and promoted by involving communities and making them active partners in the process. Exclusion of communities has invariably led to damage and destruction of the valuable heritage at local level. Making communities aware, making them understand the context, using heritage walks, organising workshops, holding exhibitions and training young people as guide can help in making heritage a community- led initiative rather than a government led programme. Involving local communities can help in solving numerous local issues and also of taking care of the heritage itself.

Looking at the entire context the significance and potential of Cultural Heritage can be summed up/ enumerated in terms of;

· Demonstrating way of life; Cultural heritage demonstrate the way of living which a community inherits from past generations and passed on to the next generations.

· Connecting people with values; Connecting people with certain social values, beliefs, religions and customs remains the essence of Heritage. It conveys messages and values that give meaning to people’s life. It strongly influences our sense of identity, loyalties, knowledge, beliefs, emotions, and behavior.

· Creating sense of belonging; Cultural heritage offers inherent advantage of creating a sense of connectivity between people , make them better understand and appreciate the history of where they come from. It represents the identity of a social group

· Developing mutual respect; Cultural heritage promotes cultural diversity, develop mutual and renewed dialogue amongst different cultures in an era of globalization

· Promoting Economic development; Heritage is known to promoter of economic development.

· Generating Employment; Globally Heritage has been recognized and accepted for its potential to generate large employment

· Removing Poverty; Large number of nations have leveraged the potential of heritage to promote local development and eliminate poverty

· Connecting globally; Tourism based on the heritage has been considered as the best option to connect communities and people across the globe.

· Promoting local craft and industry; Heritage tourism has helped numerous local communities to provide large opportunities for promoting local industry in the shape of creating souvenirs, mementoes’ etc., for keeping their memories alive of the visit made.

· Promoting Peace; Cultural heritage represents an effective vehicle for promoting understanding among the diversity of people and developing a policy for peace and mutual comprehension.

Advantages of Involving Communities;

Active and realistic involvement of communities, has proved its worth and has led to effective preserving and managing heritage at the local and global levels. Distinct and positive outcomes of the community involvement in the domain of heritage conservation can be enumerated as under;

• Effective and comprehensive participation of the local community in heritage planning and implementation invariably helps in maintaining continuous dialogue between the government and community, so that a coordinated/integrated approach to heritage conservation can be affected, and conflicts resolved.

• Involving communities invariably helps in utilizing local resources to the best possible extent, and establishing a network where training and awareness building can take place.

• Community participation can be effectively used to deal with micro-issues, which usually suffer due to lack of focus and understanding of the local contexts.

• Involving communities remains central to the success of any policy, focusing on identification, preserving, protecting and promoting heritage. Since heritage is the creation of community, accordingly they are its legitimate owners.

• Making communities coparceners in heritage planning and implementation has helped in generating not only valuable resources but has also been recognized for its effectiveness in resolving local conflicts besides providing location-specific solutions.

• Seeking community active involvement in the projects related to heritage conservation, right from the beginning has ensured that the local community is well informed and actively involved in effective implementation and successful completion of the project.

• Involving students from local schools in the management of the heritage site and training local inhabitants as tour guides have been successfully tried in Slovenia

Concept of involving and making people participating in identification, preservation, conservation, planning, implementing and managing heritage assets has gained currency among the parastatal and development agencies engaged in and entrusted with the task of managing heritage at local and global level.

Looking at the entire context of heritage, its identification, preservation, conservation and management, it becomes important that continued and sustained efforts must be made to actively and realistically involve local communities in the art and science of understanding, appreciating and valuing heritage; its rational growth and development, as an important instrument for valuing ancestors, recognizing glorious past and connecting with human civilization.

Heritage in the past has invariably been believed and operated as the government role and responsibility to the exclusion of communities at large. This approach, belief and practice has invariably led to large scale damage, destruction and loss of valuable heritage in the country. Involving communities, in real sense of term, would help in making the movement of preservation and conservation of heritage as the people’s movement by involving each and every citizen; right from a small child to a grown up adult.

Heritage Conservation needs participation and involvement of the community. A good heritage conservation strategy requires to be built on the premise of the active participation and involvement of the local community in all aspects of its development and implementation.

Multifaceted participation of the community in heritage and related projects helps in overcoming number of existing externalities and taking care of challenges and issues facing the heritage management . Participation of the community enables a clear identification and understanding of what the community needs and feels about their locality as a whole, helping in preparing rational local development plans. Involving local communities in the project planning process, can help in rational decision making and providing appropriate choices on location of services and amenities to the beneficiaries, and community leaders.

Effective and active participation of communities have also been seen to yield dividends in terms of ensuring control over allocation of project resources, and mobilization of community resources for development. If implemented properly, community participation also becomes important for implementing project activities and periodic monitoring and evaluation of project activities

Citizen's honest and dedicated involvement and participation has invariably led to; making both the government and the citizens accepting responsibilities and performing activities related to heritage ; valuing each group's contribution; inclusion of community's representatives as "partners" in decision-making; making success of the citizen's participation; making heritage conservation people centric; optimizing available resources of both government and community; safeguarding the valuable heritage; making value addition to available heritage; identifying new heritage and disseminating the idea of heritage conservation at the local level.

However, while promoting public participation, it must be ensured that entire community is taken on board while making decisions. Politicization of the participatory process and its hijacking by few powerful groups has to be invariably understood, identified and avoided. Decision making must be based on objectivity rather than subjectivity. All decisions must be taken for promoting the larger community interest and not to serve individual interests. Before undertaking the process of community participation, a detailed study and in-depth analysis of the ground realities must be carried out. Officials deputed by the government/parastatal agencies, for the task, must be adequately educated, sensitized, groomed/ trained about the art and science of involving communities and must have thorough knowledge and understanding of the project, existing ground realities and the extent/nature of involving communities in the project, to make the people participation meaningful and more productive. Public participation invariably remains a double edged weapon and accordingly has to be wielded, used and exercised with due care and caution ,to make it more meaningful effective and efficient.

Especially in Italy, where we are used to being surrounded by natural beauty and artistic and historical beauties, the involvement of the community in the preservation and care of such works and landscapes is not easy to develop. at central, state and of ministries, and at local level Through local institutions, associations, we should focus much more on realizing that such beauties and such works of art belong to everyone. aim for collaboration, involvement, feeling useful to the community, to 'to become part of those who protect the heritage for everyone else too.

Involving communities in the conservation and preservation of heritage remains a specialised job requiring specialised knowledge , skill and expertise to handle communities and understand their priorities, realistically and rationally. While involving communities, one need to understand and avoid personal interests,political interests and interest of the powerful in community, which always emerge during discussions with communities. Involving communities has to be an exercise which has to be done with care and caution, otherwise it has a danger of destroying and diluting the project. Involving communities should remain focussed to sort out critical issues requiring local intervention or understanding the genesis and importance of heritage at local level.

Community engagement plays a crucial role in heritage preservation such as enhancing Local Knowledge and Stories: Communities often hold unique knowledge and stories about heritage sites that may not be documented elsewhere. Engaging with the community allows for the collection of oral histories and traditions that enrich the interpretation of the site

· UNESCO’s declaration concerning the intentional destruction of cultural heritage (2003), explains that, ‘Heritage is an important component of the cultural identity of communities, groups, and individuals, and ... its intentional destruction may have adverse consequences, not just related to buildings and the physical landscape, but also to members of a community and their traditions and values. Heritage and its management remain a multi-tasking activity involving large number of stakeholders and cannot be performed in isolation. In the past, heritage management was considered and seen as the exclusive responsibility of the parastatal agencies to the exclusion of other stakeholders, which has, invariably and perpetually, led to emergence of numerous problems and road-blocks in effectively managing and preserving the valuable heritage. Looking at the entire context and gamut of managing the heritage; effective heritage conservation strategy must be made participatory and should revolve around and involve active participation of local communities on all issues related to planning, development, implementation and management of heritage. Ignoring communities/ public participation has been the root-cause of damage and destruction caused to majority of valuable built heritage existing in India. Effective and active participation of communities has yielded dividends in ensuring control over allocation of project resources and for implementing project activities; periodic monitoring and evaluation of project activities making both the government and the citizens accepting responsibilities and performing activities related to heritage ; valuing each group's contribution; inclusion of community's representatives as "partners" in decision-making; making success of the citizen's participation; making heritage conservation people centric; optimizing available resources of both government and communities; safeguarding the valuable heritage; making value addition to available heritage; identifying new heritage and disseminating the idea of heritage conservation at the local level.

Local people living in protected areas should participate in the planning system.