Safeguarding a democratic cultural landscape:

For us, "safeguarding a democratic cultural landscape" means empowering the key actors involved in communicating knowledge about cultural landscapes. Over the past five years, feedback from cultural and environmental education fields has made it clear that extremist and populist actors also wish to dominate discourse on landscapes by infiltrating organizations, launching campaigns, and employing subversive strategies. Even trained cultural landscape guides often feel unsettled.

Currently, there is no program available to teach them democratic counter-strategies.

In response to these challenges, the Institute of Cultural Studies at the University of Leipzig is collaborating with the Center of Excellence for Heritage Studies and Heritage Technologies (KDwt) at the University of Bamberg to develop an innovative, practice-oriented online program.

Associated partners include the German Federation for Heritage and the Environment (BHU) and the National Working Group of State-Funded Educational Institutions for Nature Conservation and Environmental Protection (BANU), among others.

The project, "Securing a Democratic Cultural Landscape," is aimed at three target groups:

- certified nature and landscape guides (ZNLer);

- the wide range of employed, freelance, and volunteer groups involved in cultural heritage protection, including staff at memorial sites, foundations, churches, and local authorities, as well as museum and tourist guides, and local heritage conservators;

- the third target group is the next generation of academics in the fields of cultural studies and heritage conservation.

At the end of the project, an accessible online resource will be made available nationwide via a project website, enabling all three target groups to easily access the project content at any time.