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e live in times of exchange, information, and networks. Globalization, commercial openness, and new information technologies have challenged ideas of time and place, allowing for instant communication between remote locations. This new connected world presents challenges to rural societies, including that of joining dynamic and open markets in a transnational manner while preserving the territories’ unique identities. This is the focus of the studies on rural territorial development with cultural identity that -Latin American Center for Rural Development- has developed with the support of the Ford Foundation: thinking about culture and local identity as
strategic resources for handling the need to be competitive with the understanding that there is a strong opportunity to link territorial cultural heritage to the competitive dynamic of the markets. That is the topic that this publication addresses in an effort to strategically bring together local culture, entrepreneurship, and citizen participation. The promise of these activities is that of more human development with respect for cultural identity that is focused on the characteristics and needs of the territories and seeks out the use and valorization of local resources, particularly those related to communities’ bio-culture, heritage, and knowledge. The territorial development with cultural