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cially because of the difficulty of assigning precise
classification schemes to the concept of culture, but
also because of the intersectoral nature of some
oral traditions also when the practices are inte-
grated with food as an integrated system of social
relations and shared meanings. Practices related to
food are in fact connected to the oral traditions and
expressions, to performing arts, to social practices,
to some rituals and festivals, to knowledge and
practices concerning nature and to the know-how
linked to traditional crafts.
Following this approach, in November 2010 on the
occasion of the Fifth Session of the Intergovern-
mental Committee of the 2003 Convention, ele-
ments concerning food practices, including the
Mediterranean diet were entered for the first time
in the Representative List.
In 2008 , four countries, namely Italy, Spain, Greece
and Morocco, decided to share their own cultural
heritage represented by a common way of life and to
begin the path of recognizing it as part of the UN-
ESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The
Mediterranean diet constitutes a set of skills,
knowledge, practices and traditions ranging from
the landscape to the table, including the crops, har-
vesting, fishing, conservation, processing, prepara-
tion and, particularly, consumption of food. The
Mediterranean diet is characterized by a nutritional
model that has remained constant over time and
space, consisting mainly of olive oil, cereals, fresh
or dried fruit and vegetables, a moderate amount of
fish, dairy and meat, and many condiments and
spices, all accompanied by wine or infusions, always
respecting the beliefs of each community. However,
the Mediterranean diet (from the Greek “diaita”, way
of life) encompasses more than just food. It pro-
motes social interaction, since communal meals
are the cornerstone of social customs and festive
events. It has given rise to a considerable body of
knowledge, songs, maxims, tales and legends. The
system is rooted in respect for the territory and bio-
diversity, and ensures the conservation and develop-ment of traditional activities and crafts linked to fish-
ing and farming in the Mediterranean communities.
The decision to inscribe the Mediterranean Diet in
the UNESCO list is a milestone in the path of the
global recognition of the cultural values of food,
agriculture and sustainable diet. The Mediterranean
diet is a unique lifestyle of a particular territory and
its sustainability is recognized as a common cul-
tural heritage of Mediterranean communities.
The Mediterranean diet, as an example of sustain-
able diet, makes clear and evident the link between
cultural and biological components, between the en-
vironment and human sustainable activities such as
traditional agriculture and fishery. The Mediter-
ranean diet emphasizes the development of a rela-
tively new concept: biocultural diversity. This concept
encompasses biological diversity at all its levels and
cultural diversity in all its manifestations. Biocul-
tural diversity is derived from the countless ways in
which humans have interacted with their natural
surroundings. Their co-evolution has generated
local ecological knowledge and practices: a vital
reservoir of experience, methods and skills that help
different societies to manage their resources.
This is an example of how, thanks to the so-called
“UNESCO system” (Petrillo, Di Bella, Di Palo, 2012),
thereby indicating that set of conventions and pro-
grammes that protect the tangible and intangible
cultural diversity and biological diversity, and to the
persistence of local populations, we may now be
able to protect and preserve an area in the cultural
and biological diversity, in Italy this area is the
Cilento.
The National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano, in
fact, was inscribed in 1997 to UNESCO’s World Net-
work of biosphere reserves recognized by the MAB
Programme: it is, therefore, recognized as a unique
ecosystem, a high concentration of biodiversity. In
addition, since 1998 it has been inscribed in the
UNESCO World Heritage list being considered by
UNESCO as a unique cultural landscape, the result
of centuries of human labour and processing of