In this article we present how participatory and collaborative methodologies with local communities, developed by the Laboratory of Biocultural Archaeology (MEMOLab) at the University of Granada, are enabling the creation of social intervention tools and alternative business models that promote sustainable tourism in remote rural areas. These tools for participation and collaboration between local communities and administrative bodies have led, on the one hand, to the empowerment of the former and, on the other, to the creation of spaces for dialogue that benefit both parties. All of this is based on the conservation and use of agricultural heritage and the landscape, whose cultural and tourism potential is enormous. The tools implemented and referred to here have been service-based payment agreements, land stewardship agreements and the creation—still in progress—of Heritage Communities, in accordance with the guidelines of the Faro Convention. The proliferation of Heritage Communities as avenues for cooperation and partnership between local organisations and stakeholders aims, in the long term, to promote the protection of rural cultural heritage whilst fostering fair, creative and sustainable tourism (FaCS Tourism).

Lack of recognition lays at the root of many of the current challenges for commons and ICCAs—Territories of Life despite the wide range of ongoing, collective action initiatives in Europe acknowledging and fighting this gap. In this paper, using a mixed methods approach, we analyze twelve years of three bottom-up initiatives based on the commons and ICCA—Territory of Life concept, implemented in Spain from 2012 to 2025. The aim of this research is to assess and understand the degree of success of the initiatives, based on an analysis of the source of recognition and the type of goals achieved. In general terms, the three recognition initiatives were successful, especially at the levels of self-, peer, and international recognition. However, all failed to substantially improve public awareness and national and sub-national governmental recognition, especially when addressing policy change and implementation. We conclude that, in the European context, despite these challenges, the concepts of “commons” and “ICCA-Territory of Life” are powerful tools to achieve some level of recognition and are a strategic priority for facing Europe’s challenges fostering solutions that reinforce the role, capacity, responsibility, and rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.