The Cinque Terre are a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1997.

The Cinque Terre National Park was established on 6 October 1999 in recognition of the territory's considerable scenic, agricultural, historical and cultural value.

Over the centuries, through constant collective work, man has managed to create this landscape, the only one of its kind in the world, safely kept inside a treasure chest between Punta Mesco and Punta Manara. A little corner of Liguria where generations have worked to create this monument in land scape architecture represented by the steep terraces sloping down to the sea. Held up by over 7000 km of dry stonewalling, cleverly built without any kind of cement, they are cultivated as vineyards that reach down to almost touch the lapping sea waves.

The Cinque Terre are today a National Park and Protected Marine with the aim of protecting this great cultural heritage. This is the first Italian Park created to safeguard a landscape that has been mostly built by man. To achieve its objectives, the Park Organization encourages the development of responsible tourism, able therefore to invest in the identity of the places and the territory's products, and thus save its immense heritage of terracing, now endangered. A sustainable tourism is the one that participates in substainable development policies. Sustainable development is a model of social and economic development that “responds to the needs of the present without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their needs” (Brundtland Report 1987).