PROCULTHER-NET Project. Technical Bulletin N. 1, March 2023

Addressing the inclusion of cultural heritage protection in the disaster risk management process demands a modification of existing strategies and approaches of many institutions and actors working in this field. It is about laying the foundations for a constructive exchange on how to build and consolidate know-how and learning processes; it is about defining methods to constantly capitalise on acquired experience and expertise to better protect cultural heritage at risk.
This technical bulletin is the tangible proof of the interest that the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, its participating States, as well as the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network devote to promoting the creation and sharing of technical and operational knowledge of both cultural heritage and civil protection authorities and agencies.
This technical bulletin is a first concrete result of the potential expressed by the PROCULTHER-NET project in consolidating a thematic community focused on the protection of cultural heritage at risk of disaster within the Union's Civil Protection Knowledge Network, with the aim of ensuring the appropriate inclusion of cultural heritage protection in disaster risk management processes at national and European level.
In particular, while Türkiye and Syria are still recovering from the devastating impact of the earthquake that has affected their population since 6 February, also in the field of the protection of cultural heritage, this bulletin reports a strong testimony on the valuable competence developed by one of these countries in this thematic field. The article developed by the experts of the Turkish Ministry of Culture on the “Project for the Conservation and Relocation of the Tomb Zeynel Bey in Hasankeyf” is a key example of how a strong human action can serve to effectively protect people and cultural heritage, ensuring the adoption of sustainable build back better approach in the recovery phase.
In order to make a substantial contribution to strengthening the protection of cultural heritage at risk, the bulletin aims to cover all phases of disaster risk management with both a phase-specific and mainstreamed approach. In particular, under the section PREVENTION, ICCROM proposes important inputs on “Gathering indigenous knowledge to mitigate climate crisis – ICCROM-FAR’s Net Zero: Heritage for Climate Action”.
The PREPAREDNESS section introduces tools developed in Italy for mapping historic centres from seismic risk. In the same section, a particular focus is dedicated to the protection of movable cultural heritage – be it archives, graphic arts, objects, furniture, paintings, sculptures, books… – from a German point of view with an article on “Providing first-aid to movable cultural heritage: a modular table system” and a case study dedicated to the experience of Cologne in this field, “From vision to reality – the Cologne Container for the protection of cultural heritage”.
Insights on how to store and protect movable cultural heritage are offered by Italy in the “Guidelines for the identification, adaptation, design and setting up of depots for the temporary storage of movable cultural assets including annexed restoration laboratories”.
Under RESPONSE we share the lessons learnt from France on the "security/safety" action plan for cathedrals, showcased as a major tool for a better response from all stakeholders to emerging risks and threats.
For this bulletin edition, the mainstreaming section (FOCUS ON) is dedicated to the “European coordination”, the importance of which is explained in three articles exploring the various facets of this theme: at national-level between cultural institutions and civil protection, while upholding European and international standards; between partner countries within the PROCULTHER project (2019-2021), finding common ground despite national specificities and differences; and at the European level with the integration of a cultural heritage module in the framework of the Mechanism.
Common standards stand at the heart of international collaboration. They include joint procedures, a shared language and compatible tools. Although bringing the worlds of cultural heritage and civil protection together – and having them agree on mutual processes – may remain a challenge within some national contexts, the European level provides a valuable space for experimentation to test innovative approaches and define new best practices that can then be cascaded downstream and upstream, towards the national and international levels.
These three examples are important milestones on the road to the integration of cultural heritage protection and civil protection.