ARZ

Three Years of the Barycz Valley Recommends Brand

The Barycz Valley Recommends brand is the result of many years of work on the part of several non-governmental organisations seeking to preserve the region’s unique environment and to stimulate locally based, environmentally friendly economic activities.

Given the Barycz Valley’s local, national and international status as an ecologically important area, the NGOs established two main priorities to help protect the region’s most valuable resources:

1. Developing the Barycz Valley’s tourist image. The idea was to offer visitors more than just extraordinary nature. Commercially viable local products and services would serve to cultivate local traditions, promote the region’s cultural and culinary heritage, and develop an environmentally friendly tourism offer.
2. Recruiting allies for conservation. If producers and service providers benefited economically from their local-based operations, they would have the incentive to work to preserve the natural and cultural landscapes of the Barycz Valley.

Work on the Barycz Valley Recommends brand began in 2007 when the Barycz Valley Foundation set out the initial guidelines for the system that would promote quality products and services:

• Producers and service providers apply for the right to use the brand on an annual basis. (It was determined that certification should remain valid for only one year to provide incentives for brand users to continue to improve their products and services.)
• Local products should be based on widely available, but distinct local resources.
• Services should offer visitors the opportunity to enjoy the nature, culture and history of the region.
• Brand users are expected to cooperate with each other, engage in joint promotion activities, consumer education as well as promotion of the region’s natural values.

Interest in the brand has grown rapidly on the part of producers and service providers as well as consumers and visitors to the Valley.  While in 2008 an initial 15 producers were qualified to use the brand, a year later the program more than doubled in size to include a total of 35 producers and service providers. Today 46 producers and service providers use the Barycz Valley Recommends brand, which is a registered trademark.

Support for brand users comes from both the Barycz Valley Foundation and Partnership for the Barycz Valley, a Local Action Group, in the form of joint education and promotion programs. Training courses, seminars, study-tours and workshops serve to educate brand users and integrate the group as a whole. The BVF and LAG publish promotional leaflets, brochures, catalogues and maps, which are distributed at events held in the Barycz Valley as well as trade fairs and gatherings outside the region.

Goods and services from the Barycz Valley are also becoming more widely recognized and sought after in the region. Today almost half of the producers have regular customers who buy products at scheduled events or on site in the Barycz Valley. Some producers, who had once considered shutting down their operations prior to joining the Barycz Valley Recommends program, are today looking to expand their businesses, and are now seeking to secure additional financing through LEADER Axis 4.

Contact and more information:
www.dbpoleca.barycz.pl