Protection of the rural destinations as the world cultural heritage sites: international practices

The article discusses the concept of “agro-cultural (agricultural) heritage” and composing it objects in rural (agricultural) tourism, for which they are the most important destinations. This research object is interdisciplinary, affect- ing a variety of spheres, particularly, agro-tourism, sightseeing, services and so forth, and economy in general. Agricultural heritage includes tangible objects of agricultural and technical culture, created for the production. Such objects are saved for better and complete study and understanding of their nature, not for contemplation; they are not works of art. This heritage is an- thropogenic and technological. From the scientific and methodological point of view the very understanding of the term of "agricultural heritage" is still quite uncertain. The article presents a comprehensive understanding of it based on the nature-use concept as a binary object system "Man - Nature". The available experience of classification of agricultural heritage objects is considered. Starting 2002, at the initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the criteria are developed and an inventory of objects of the world agro- cultural heritage, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), is conducted. One of the GIAHS goals is identifying objects of agricultural heritage that are most corresponding to the status of "global agricultural heritage" and their promotion for including to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The article pre- sents for the first time ever full GIAHS list in Russian as of October, 2016. We have separated in special list 114 objects from 58 countries, correspond- ing in our view to the concept of "agricultural heritage" from the UNESCO World Heritage List current at the end of 2016. The article presets the at- tempt to classify them by 12 categories. The rating of countries in the world by the number of Agricultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites is submitted. The author notes that exactly this category of objects forms a primary resource base for the agricultural (rural) tourism development as the most important attractive destinations, especially in Europe. As the conclusions the reasons are formulated, under which agricultural tourism is a promising form of tour- ism organization both for individual agricultural enterprises on the basis of objects of agricultural heritage, and for the regions in which these objects are presented.