Territorial resources and local development: search for local territorial identity (case analysis of Žagarė cherry)

Abstract

The fate of local communities and rural areas in Europe depended on the transformations of political regimes, people’s ability to develop agricultural resources and economic influence on the development of markets for manufactured goods and agricultural products in rural areas. Lithuania, like many other countries, has undergone profound transformations. The country’s rural areas reflect how local communities adapted themselves to the necessary changes. At the heart of these changes lies the Žagarė cherry which used to be a fruit of luxury in the 18th century Russian Empire; whereas during the Soviet era it became a supplement to the villagers and town-dwellers diet. Our main aim is to understand how nowadays the Žagarė cherry is a symbolic terroir product of a local community which seeks to reshape a local development strategy based on the recaptured past. The Žagarė cherry both rooted in its natural soil and crossed by the history of the district between Joniškis and Žagarė, in its history has known a real reformulation of its territorial inscription. Thanks to local community investment in local development projects, the cherry has become the object of an identity shaped by the cherry festival, a widely recognized cultural and heritage event. The Žagarė cherry has become a territorial resource activated by the local community thanks to a metamorphosis of the resource in a local context.