**7. Conclusions**

According to Niles [73,74], traditional agriculture is usually considered a relic of the past, an inefficient way of farming the land. In reality, and this is amply demonstrated by the case of the Valley of the Temples, traditional agriculture is one of the richest testimonies of human environmental experience, one of the most successful ways to establish a relationship of collaboration with the nature that is transmissible and sustainable [13].

Similar observations are contained in the ICOMOS-IFLA *Principles Concerning Rural Landscapes as Heritage* (2017), which considers rural landscapes as a vital component of human heritage that includes technical, scientific and practical knowledge relating to human–nature relations. Rural landscapes and traditional agriculture also provide multiple economic and social benefits, cultural support and ecosystem services for human societies.

The case study of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento was observed from the point of view of the study of the archaeology of rural landscapes, and it emerged that these landscapes are repositories of the ecosystem's values and the sustainability of the exploitation of environmental resources in the long term, values that have disappeared elsewhere.

The good practices analysed make it possible to evaluate how the results achieved are able to favour the dissemination and enhancement of the cultural values borne by the landscape. The best practices with the greatest impact concern: initiatives capable of keeping alive the historical memory of ancient production practices and using them as a basis for new creative products; saving plant species from extinction through germplasm banks and living collections of trees; appreciating the biodiversity of mixed crops (Mediterranean garden) as a value; facilitating cooperation between the public administration, private entrepreneurs and research institutes for the managemen<sup>t</sup> of state-owned agricultural land while maintaining the diversity of the landscape and habitats; creating of economic opportunities linked to local products in harmony with nature and with the culture of the communities concerned [75].

The Park Authority, as the territorial body responsible for the planning and management of the Archaeological Park, has prepared projects and plans that involve top-down processes. However, it has also activated processes for the involvement of the local population, aimed at schoolchildren, entrepreneurs, farmers as well as B&B owners [61], with the aim of reaching the common citizen. It should be emphasised that these actions open up

new and interesting research perspectives. Indeed, this process of involvement, referring to a territorial context that expresses a very strong identity value, could be channelled into the processes that lead to the formation of an ecomuseum, considered as a powerful tool for the participatory managemen<sup>t</sup> of natural and cultural heritage [75,76]. To this end, it is necessary to create a community capable of recognising its territory as a living heritage, of identifying itself with it and of actively participating in its transmission, communication and enhancement.

We close these reflections on the trajectories of the landscape through the Anthropocene with the same authors with whom we opened this article. Crutzen and Stoermer seemingly expressed a prophecy when, in 2000 (long before we could have imagined the global pandemic that arrived in 2020), they claimed that:

"without major catastrophes like an enormous volcanic eruption, an unexpected epidemic, a large-scale nuclear war, an asteroid impact, a new ice age, or continued plundering of Earth's resources by partially still primitive technology (... ) mankind will remain a major geological force for many millennia, maybe millions of years, to come. To develop a world-wide accepted strategy leading to sustainability of ecosystems against human induced stresses will be one of the grea<sup>t</sup> future tasks of mankind, requiring intensive research efforts and wise application of the knowledge ( ... ). An exciting, but also difficult and daunting task lies ahead of the global research and engineering community to guide mankind towards global, sustainable, environmental management" [1], p. 18.

As we have demonstrated, the context of the Valley of the Temples, spared by the Great Acceleration, is a historical landscape that contains a vast archive of practices, knowledge and living plant and animal species. This "fertile ground" is particularly suitable for the growth of new managemen<sup>t</sup> models that prove to be truly durable and sustainable in the long term.

**Funding:** Financial support from "Fondo di Finanziamento della Ricerca di Ateneo (FFR 2019)" of the University of Palermo.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data supporting the reported results can be found in the bibliographical references.

**Acknowledgments:** The drafting of the article was supported by interviews with those who, from a scientific, administrative and managerial point of view, participated in the enhancement process of the Valle dei Templi Park. The author thanks Giuseppe Barbera of the University of Palermo— Scientific Manager of the project for the realisation of the Living Museum of the Almond Tree, the recovery of the Kolymbethra Garden and the drafting of the Landscape Regeneration project—for his scientific insights, as well as for valuable advice and encouragement. The author thanks Giuseppe Lo Pilato—landscape agronomist, agricultural entrepreneur and director of the Kolymbethra Garden— for the description of the process of building a public/private partnership for the enhancement of cultural heritage and for having testified, from the point of view of the private farmer, the difficulties encountered in the implementation/management process. The author thanks Calogero Liotta—agronomist and part of the staff of the Park Authority of the Valley of the Temples—for the description, from the point of view of the managing public body, of the processes, difficulties, successes and failures encountered in the planning and managemen<sup>t</sup> of the landscape enhancement of the archaeological/rural area of the Park. The author thanks the three reviewers of the article for their valuable suggestions and the invitation to enrich the topics with references to other authors and complementary themes.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
