Rural heritage represents the foundation of our past, which includes material and immaterial heritage. By studying rural heritage, we could better understand the past and integrate it into sustainable development of modern communities. My presentation will be focussed on the example of villages with fortified churches from Transylvania, which are the most representative rural heritage of Romania, and includes series of villages, but just seven of them were inscribed in the World Heritage List – Prejmier-Tartlau, Biertan, Valea Viilor, Calnic, Saschiz-Keisd, Darju, and Viscri. I will discuss the role and impact of public participation in various preservation and development projects. Other specific issues for these villages will be discussed too, like tourist impact on local communities. The presentation is part of our new project, which was launched in August 2017 and has the goal to identify and set up innovative models of good practices, adapted to the local cultural and social-economic specificities, for safeguarding and managing the Romanian World Heritage Sites. The project deals with multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective approach, developing partnership networks between various institutions from Romania and abroad interested in the project field and transfer of good practices on maintenance, preservation and cultural heritage management, community participation and cooperation with local public administration in order to develop National Strategy and management plans supported by realistic action plans. Only a common and integrated approach will make it possible to enrich UNESCO standards of preservation and maintain the WHS status. Keywords: Romania, World Heritage Site, Rural heritage, fortified churches, community participation.