It has proved to be extremely difficult to put the proposed safeguarding plan into practice and to convince local, regional and national institutions of the importance of the element.
Furthermore, transmission can no longer take place via the traditional family route. The family units cannot take on responsibility for this transmission, for legal and demographic reasons.
By law, only those over the age of 16 can work. The older master cowbell makers see this as a hindrance.
TRAINING / TRANSMISSION
In the last six years, the Pardalinho factory, in Alcáçovas, has created three positions through the IEFP - The Employment and Vocational Training Institute. The training of one of these employees in cowbell making is at an advanced stage. At the end of 2019, the factory had nine employees in total.
Of these, three young workers remained in the factory’s employ until the first quarter of 2020, but, in September of this year, three employees were let go because of the Covid-19 pandemic. By 2022, one of the remaining employees will be equipped to make and tune cowbells of any size. This may alleviate the threat of extinction to some extent. It should be borne in mind that the factory’s investment in training is a direct consequence of the business opportunities opened up by UNESCO’s inscription of cowbell making.
PROMOTION OF THE ELEMENT AS AN INTANGIBLE CULTURAL ELEMENT
A permanent exhibition on cowbell making has been set up in Alcáçovas, to address the following questions: what is it? what is it for? who makes cowbells? Two other key knowledge areas are also covered by the exhibition: i. what is intangible cultural heritage and the convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage? what is UNESCO and which other Portuguese elements are inscribed?; ii. the role of recorded oral history in strengthening the community, who are invited to deposit and share their memories of heritage and identity, particularly those associated with the use of cowbells.
A number of general and specific scientific meetings on the element were held, with a focus on building networks. Thus, support was given to a MuCem (Museum of the European and Mediterranean Civilisations) initiative, the signing of a protocol on the Montado (cork oak forest) with the University of Évora.
An educational project to encourage visits to the exhibition was devised.
A digital platform for the element was set up, in which the know-how is contextualised in terms of our mobile and fixed natural heritage and our documental heritage. This can be accessed at http://pagus.pt/
The traditional Alcáçovas fair was reimagined, to take into account the new reality engendered by the inscription of cowbell making.
ECONOMIC PROMOTION OF THE ELEMENT
The regional tourism entity Turismo Alentejo, promoter of the inscription request for the element, is currently setting up a project to enhance the tourism-related value of this heritage, but in a sustainable manner.

The 2014 safeguarding plan covered the following five points:
1. CREATE AND IMPLEMENT AN INTERPRETATION CENTRE TO FOSTER AND DEVELOP A PARTNERSHIP NETWORK
Proposed: To create an interpretation centre for cowbell making and genetic heritage in Alcáçovas. This centre would play a key role in implementing the safeguarding plan.
Attained: Under the name PAGUS, the centre was installed in Paço dos Henriques, a building of historical and architectural interest classified as a property of public interest by the Portuguese government. In 2016, refurbishment work on the building was completed and it now houses a digital documentation centre on cowbell making, a permanent exhibition on the inscribed element and on the convention on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as well as space for temporary exhibitions.
PAGUS grew out of a protocol signed between Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council and Turismo Alentejo - the Regional Tourism Authority.
Once community funds had been secured, the work to set it up took place between 2017 and 2019. It has been open to the public since August 2019
2. TRANSMISSION
Proposed: to create conditions aiming to the transmission of the element in the traditional manner, by establishing a strategy inspired by the Living Human Treasures Programme.
Attained: It was not possible to make progress on this for two reasons: i. the masters were unable to teach (due to their age, state of health or because they died); ii. all the master cowbell makers who might have supported such traditional transmission stopped working and, between 2014 and 2016, all the training moved to two factories, one in Ereira and the other in Alcáçovas. We have little information on the first of these. As regards the second, the Pardalinho factory, with IEFP support, set up a cowbell making training course. Three workers are on this course. One of them should finish and become a cowbell maker in 2022 and the others in 2025.
3. ENCOURAGE AND CREATE ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
Proposed: To create strategies for promoting the activity and raising the visibility of the inscribed element. This viability of this heritage asset is very much dependent on the market.
Attained: the eight proposed points were not delivered, but initiatives to create networks and transform a traditional fair into a space dedicated to cowbell making were successfully implemented.
The traditional Alcáçovas fair, now known as the Cowbell Fair, is held annually on the 4th Sunday in July. Over the years it has grown into an opportunity to reflect on Portugal's intangible cultural heritage and an exhibition space for cowbell making. It takes place over three days and, alongside the commercial country show, it offers exhibitions on Portuguese assets inscribed by UNESCO on the lists of intangible cultural heritage.
In 2018, an initial project, involving a designer that works with cork thread and a master cowbell maker and master maker of small bells, was presented during an event called PAGUS WEEK.
In 2019, an ethnographic visit to cowbell makers in Spain and France took place, with a particular focus on those based in the Pyrenees. This mission had two objectives: i. to understand the economic reality and productive context of each of these cowbell makers; ii. to lay the groundwork for a future international meeting.
5. RESEARCH AND DISSEMINATION
Proposed: To set up a multidisciplinary project that would drive a deeper understanding and dissemination of the knowledge involved in cowbell making. To set up a digital platform. To organise scientific meetings. To find an ethical way of linking the inscribed element with the tourism business.
Attained: In addition to the permanent exhibition, the PAGUS project also set up a digital platform that holds some 30,000 records. These records form an inventory that covers the natural, mobile, fixed, intangible and documental heritage associated with cowbell making. The overall aim of these records was to inventory the countryside in which cowbell making is embedded.
There were several colloquia on themes related to the landscape and soundscape, pastoralism and genetic heritage, intangible cultural heritage and safeguarding. In 2018, PAGUS Week, which benefited from the presence of a MuCem researcher, addressed the various strands of the ongoing project.
A number of artefacts pertaining to the making of cowbells in the Alentejo are on permanent display in the Mediterranean Gallery at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, thanks to the cooperation between the museum and the PAGUS project.

The community of Alcáçovas, including the master cowbell makers and their families and the promoting institutions, was very much present and involved in all the activities.
The exhibition on cowbell making was also shaped by initial meetings with the masters, whether these were still working, retired or had otherwise left the profession. Their families and the descendants of past cowbell makers also contributed.
This permanent exhibition involved cowbell makers from across the country, whether based in mainland Portugal or in the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores.
All the objects were selected in the basis of recommendations made by the owners or their descendants.
A significant part of this exhibition was dedicated to the master cowbell makers. The names of some two hundred cowbell makers who have been based in Alcáçovas, some as far back as the eighteenth century, were displayed on a wall. This list, which is ordered alphabetically and is not subdivided by location, is supplemented by an interactive digital table where the family member or visitor can look up a listed name. Using documentary research and interviews, biographies and genealogical maps were made in order to highlight the strategies for transmitting this know-how.
The Cowbell Fair last took place in Alcáçovas in 2019, when it attracted some 2,000 visitors. Three years earlier, in 2016, all Portuguese cowbell makers had been invited to attend and make use of a free stand. In the last two years, the fair has only been able to count on the presence of the Pardalinho factory, as no other Portuguese cowbell makers were still practising their art. This presence is supplemented by a themed exhibition on a Portuguese element that has already been inscribed. In 2018, there was an exhibition on Fado, loaned by the Museum of Fado. The 2019 exhibition, loaned by Tavira Municipal Council, was on the Mediterranean Diet.
All the colloquia and PAGUS Week were well attended by the community in Alcáçovas and by the cowbell makers.
The regional tourism authority, Turismo do Alentejo, has worked with all the workshops on the development, assembly and production of tourist experiences based on the PCI of the Alentejo and Ribatejo Only the Pardalinho factory was open to receiving visitors through this initiative. It should be noted that this factory, in the peninsular context, including the French Pyrenees, is the most interesting example of dialogue between technology and tradition.
There was an ongoing dialogue with the community on all the above points and all decisions were taken in line with wishes of the master cowbell makers.

The timeline for the implementation of the safeguarding plan began in February 2017, when EU funds were made available, following negotiations between the Alentejo Region Coordination Commission and two of the promoters of the application, the regional tourism entity and the Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council.
Between 2015 and 2019, the annual cowbell fair, organised by the Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council, was held five times. It did not take place in 2020, because of the pandemic.
The refurbishment and conservation work on the historical-architectural Paço dos Henriques complex in Alcáçovas was completed in 2016. This building houses all the initiatives deriving from the safeguarding plan.
In September 2016, this space was opened to the public, in the presence of several official and governmental entities. There was a temporary exhibition on cowbell making and the importance of UNESCO’s inscription of this element, particularly as regards the space for dialogue that this inscription allowed. This relevance is closely associated with the fact that the Treaty of the Peace of Alcáçovas was signed in the building in 1479. This treaty, which established an agreement between the King of Portugal and the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon regarding of possession of the Atlantic islands and estabilishing other navigation issues, opened the way for potential future dialogue between cultures and civilisations. The PAGUS project is also housed in this building.
Between 2017 and 2018, extensive work was carried out registering information on a computerised database, gathering heritage information and video-recording.
During PAGUS Week, which was held in September 2018, a protocol was signed between ERT (the regional tourist authority) and the Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council, in which the parties committed to making every effort to create sustainability in the element. Both active and/or inactive cowbell makers participated in this protocol.
At this event, which was both scientific and promotional in nature, contact was established with MUCEM and various lines of work regarding cowbell making were presented. An experience that brought together cowbell making and the work of a designer was also presented.
In 2018, an exhibition of 100 cowbells signed by different Portuguese public figures was also held. The aim of this was to raise awareness of the element.
In August 2019, following months of design and installation, the permanent exhibition on the making of cowbells was opened.
In 2019, the ERT invited local authorities to submit tourism-related projects that aimed to enhance intangible cultural heritage, in general, and cowbell making, in particular. Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council, in collaboration with the Pardalinho factory, designed a visitor programme for the general public.
Between 2014 and 2019, the Pardalinho factory, with the support of the IEFP - The Employment and Vocational Training Institute, set up a training course for young people.
In August 2019, a mission was sent to make contact with the Spanish cowbell makers and the French cowbell factory. The aim of this was to assess the state of the art, collect information and make a photographic record.

The funds invested between 2015 and 2020 can be broken down into the following sources and amounts:

Financing of the Cowbell fair by the Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council:
2016: € 41,610.79
2017: € 95,170.35
2018: € 88,326.20
2019: € 77,940.16

Community funds, negotiated between the promoters and the CCDR Alentejo, with Viana do Alentejo Municipal Council contributing the national share: € 454,485,00, of which € 340,863.75 was provided by FEDER.

We have been unable to ascertain the investment in training made by the Pardalinho factory, but we estimate this to be not less than € 150,000.

Investment by the Alentejo Regional Authority in making intangible cultural heritage a part of the tourist experience: €60,000.

The investment, which involved community, public and private funds, was, by and large, built into the safeguarding plan submitted when the promoters applied for the inscription of cowbell making.

Investment slowed after August 2019. New lines of funding are currently being sought and work is being done on finding ways of assessing the use of these funds and the extent to which they have impacted the creation of sustainability, transmission and promotion for the element inscribed in 2015.

The initiatives implemented and the financial resources invested in promoting the element economically and as intangible cultural heritage, in its transmission and in the seeking of sustainability have had generally positive outcomes.
It should be noted that the application for UNESCO inscription was made when the element was already on the verge of extinction. Its few practitioners, due to their advanced age, are interested in transmitting their skills and knowledge. Although their health and age do not allow them to do so directly, they are more than willing to share all and any information that is requested.
We should also take into account the fact that, in the last 20 years, cowbell making has suffered a lot as a commercial activity, due to the industrial production of meat, demographic decline and a reduction in pastoral activity. Nevertheless, it can still be a profitable business. We also need to bear in mind that the number of shepherds and indigenous breeds is also decreasing.
No less important is the scant valorisation of the element by society in general and, even, by the scientific community that works with the defence and valorisation of cultural heritage.
There can be no doubt that UNESCO inscription has raised the element’s profile. Running parallel to the investment, the PAGUS project has done all it can to promote the dissemination and the objectives of the application for inscription. This traditional artisanal activity is often given airtime on both public and private Portuguese TV channels and radio stations. One public TV channel is actually broadcasting images of cowbell makers for its inter-programme graphics. This communication strategy has helped boost public understanding of this craft.
The permanent exhibition on cowbell making at Paço dos Henriques has had 8,114 visitors so far. After visiting the exhibition, many visitors seek out the two commercial spaces in Alcáçovas linked to cowbell making, in order to see the process in action.
The digital platform, which is in continuous development, has also helped disseminate the element and served to receive any incoming information on the same.
Thanks to this inscription and the interest shown by the media, the Pardalinho factory has followed a strategy of economic promotion that has allowed it to expand (up to 2019, since when it is has experienced difficulties as the pandemic restricts access to fairs and markets). This has led to the hiring of more workers and, thus, the transmission of skills and knowledge.
In terms of tourism, the inscription has helped boost the value of the area, by associating this element with others that are already inscribed. The regional tourism entity has, for this reason, set up a specific programme for intangible cultural heritage that involves the owners of the same.
Both Alcáçovas and its people have experienced a significant rise in self-esteem. From an economic point of view, the thousands of visitors have helped to sustain a fragile economy, particularly in terms of restaurants, accommodation and small local businesses.
One of the most important aspects of the inscription and of the initiatives developed for the making of cowbells was that it created visibility for a heritage seen as a minor feature. Along with this increased visibility, it has influenced other parts of the country to pay more attention to the threat of extinction facing Portugal’s genetic heritage. The initiatives implemented and the financial resources invested in promoting the element economically and as intangible cultural heritage, in its transmission and in the seeking of sustainability have had generally positive outcomes.
It should be noted that the application for UNESCO inscription was made when the element was already on the verge of extinction. Its few practitioners, due to their advanced age, are interested in transmitting their skills and knowledge. Although their health and age do not allow them to do so directly, they are more than willing to share all and any information that is requested.
We should also take into account the fact that, in the last 20 years, cowbell making has suffered a lot as a commercial activity, due to the industrial production of meat, demographic decline and a reduction in pastoral activity. Nevertheless, it can still be a profitable business. We also need to bear in mind that the number of shepherds and indigenous breeds is also decreasing.
No less important is the scant valorisation of the element by society in general and, even, by the scientific community that works with the defence and valorisation of cultural heritage.
There can be no doubt that UNESCO inscription has raised the element’s profile. Running parallel to the investment, the PAGUS project has done all it can to promote the dissemination and the objectives of the application for inscription. This traditional artisanal activity is often given airtime on both public and private Portuguese TV channels and radio stations. One public TV channel is actually broadcasting images of cowbell makers for its inter-programme graphics. This communication strategy has helped boost public understanding of this craft.
The permanent exhibition on cowbell making at Paço dos Henriques has had 8,114 visitors so far. After visiting the exhibition, many visitors seek out the two commercial spaces in Alcáçovas linked to cowbell making, in order to see the process in action.
The digital platform, which is in continuous development, has also helped disseminate the element and served to receive any incoming information on the same.
Thanks to this inscription and the interest shown by the media, the Pardalinho factory has followed a strategy of economic promotion that has allowed it to expand (up to 2019, since when it is has experienced difficulties as the pandemic restricts access to fairs and markets). This has led to the hiring of more workers and, thus, the transmission of skills and knowledge.
In terms of tourism, the inscription has helped boost the value of the area, by associating this element with others that are already inscribed. The regional tourism entity has, for this reason, set up a specific programme for intangible cultural heritage that involves the owners of the same.
Both Alcáçovas and its people have experienced a significant rise in self-esteem. From an economic point of view, the thousands of visitors have helped to sustain a fragile economy, particularly in terms of restaurants, accommodation and small local businesses.
One of the most important aspects of the inscription and of the initiatives developed for the making of cowbells was that it created visibility for a heritage seen as a minor feature. Along with this increased visibility, it has influenced other parts of the country to pay more attention to the threat of extinction facing Portugal’s genetic heritage.
Finally, the inscription and the contacts that the PAGUS project has forged with entities in Spain, France and Italy have led to a greater interest in this element.
The investment was relevant and the results can be described as positive.
All the various initiatives have made provision for the involvement of communities, groups and individuals, whether owners or not.
Involvement in many of the initiatives was not greater for three reasons: i. the weak valorisation of the element as a heritage element; ii. the distancing of communities from the rural world; iii. a failure to relate this idiophone to the landscape and a lack of knowledge of the threat of extinction faced by many native races and the associated milieu.
In considering the information and facts expounded here, we may conclude that both the UNESCO inscription and the results obtained are positive, despite all the difficulties encountered.