On 4 November 2016, the traditional activities of L’Albufera of Valencia were declared an Asset of Intangible Cultural Interest: artisanal fishing and lateen sailing.

The scope and diversity offered by L’Albufera means that material structures, artefacts and, in general, traditional practices are created, for the use and exploitation of the resources it provides. As in the case of fishing or lateen sailing, these are techniques, uses and customs that are the result of an evolution over centuries.

The rich cultural heritage that arises from this inveterate relationship between the environment and man deserves to be attended to and preserved, especially when, on the one hand, many of these practices are examples of sustainability, essential and everything for the conservation of biological diversity and, on the other hand, are threatened with extinction.

Fishing It is the oldest traditional activity in L’Albufera of Valencia, because already James I after the reconquest, and reserving the wetland for his heritage, establishes in a privilege of 1250 that «they can fish in theAlbufera of Valencia any neighbour or inhabitant of the city or kingdom of Valencia and any stranger also, and catch fish, and should not give Nós or ours never of these fish, but only the frank fifth.” Its interest comes from its long tradition, its adaptation to the environment, its secular identification with the society where it develops, its old organizational structures, its arts, its language, its own symbols…

On the other hand, the lateen sail is one of the traditional forms of navigation common throughout the Mediterranean, with a considerable incidence in the Valencian lands, and particularly in the Albufera, where since ancient times it has been used as a means of lake transport linked to the exploitation of natural resources, such as fishing and agriculture, and whose functions are currently related to forms of leisure associated with the cultural and recreational field. In addition, lateen sailing occupies a place in its own right in the identity imagery of the Valencian people, and around it there are a series of material and intangible elements constituting the traditional Valencian culture that deserve to be protected in order to guarantee its legacy to future generations.