Law No. 85/IX/2020 approving the Legal Regime for the Protection and Valorization of Cultural Heritage.

This Law, consisting of 70 articles divided into three Titles, approves the Legal Regime for the Protection and Valorization of Cultural Heritage. It applies to material and immaterial goods that, being testimonies with a value of civilization or culture, bearers of relevant cultural interest for the preservation of identity and the appreciation of Cape Verdean culture, should be the object of special protection and appreciation. In particular, these are the assets that must be subject to special protection: a) Monuments; b) Works of man or joint works of man and nature; c) Urban or rural architectural structures; d) Natural monuments built by physical and biological formations or by groups of such formations with exceptional local, national or universal value from an aesthetic or scientific point of view; e) Geological formations and delimited areas that constitute the habitat for threatened animal and plant species; f) Places of natural interest or delimited natural areas, with exceptional local, national or universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty. The intangible assets that constitute structuring portions of Cape Verdean identity and collective memory and encompass practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and techniques - along with the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural places that should also be the object of special protection and valorization, that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as an integral part of their cultural heritage. In addition, the Cape Verdean mother tongue, as the foundation of national sovereignty, is an essential asset of Cape Verdean cultural heritage.