From October to December 2024, PROCULTHER-NET made its voice heard at high-level meetings and seminars around the world: from the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Bucharest, to the events closing the year of celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention, the national events in Portugal and Spain, and the UNESCO Conference on fire risk and climate change in Chile.
6 - 8 October 2024: European Heritage Policy Agora in the framework of the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2024, Bucharest (Romania) The Royal Palace - National Museum of Art in Bucharest hosted the European Heritage Policy Agora as part of the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2024 organised by Europa Nostra and its partners, with the High Patronage of the President of Romania, H.E. Klaus Iohannis, in cooperation and with the support of the European Commission, through the EU Creative Europe Programme for the European Heritage Awards and European Cultural Heritage Agora project, as well as the Action Grant for the European Heritage Hub pilot project. Over 800 heritage professionals attended the Bucharest Summit to celebrate the laureates of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2024 and engage in high-level debates on responsible digital transition for and with cultural heritage as well as on the need to uphold quality principles related to heritage conservation and management.
Continuing the dialogue on Europe’s future, this edition of the Heritage Policy Agora provided heritage experts, policymakers and artists with a crucial space for meaningful debates on quality principles and policy priorities ahead of the new EU legislative period. On 8 October, Tiziana Vicario, PROCULTHER-NET 2 project manager, was invited to the panel “The road ahead: Towards more resilient heritage ecosystems” that explored the adverse impacts of climate change on European heritage and, in parallel, discussed the potential of heritage to contribute to climate action. The project manager shared the steps undertaken by PROCULTHER since 2019 to enhance the protection of cultural heritage at risk, that has resulted in a paradigm shift within the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, from a response-based approach to the inclusion of cultural heritage protection across all phases of disaster risk management. This PROCULTHER path, which brought closer disaster risk management experts and cultural heritage professionals, allowed to observe the common gaps and challenges among the actors involved: from the lack of coordination between sectors having different priorities, methodologies, and terminologies, to the absence of shared standards and procedures across countries and institutions to protect cultural heritage during emergencies, up to the lack of awareness and capacity building at all governance levels. Then, Tiziana Vicario explained how the project addressed these key issues over the years and what it envisaged for the ongoing phase to bridge the gap between the cultural heritage sector and disaster risk management entities. She presented the PROCULTHER Methodology proposed to integrate cultural heritage protection across all phases of disaster risk management and the PROCULTHER-NET Technical Bulletins – now in their fourth issue - which collect the state-of-the art and best practices in this field. She then continued with the work for the development of shared tools, guidelines, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) aimed to align national and local frameworks with European and international standards, ensuring that all stakeholders operate within a common framework during disasters. Tiziana Vicario mentioned also the capacity building initiatives planned in 2025 at national and international level: the training programmes and simulation exercises tailored for both cultural heritage professionals and disaster risk managers, as well as the national and international workshops, helping stakeholders better understand roles, engagement rules, and define a common approach to safeguarding cultural heritage during disasters. She concluded inviting experts and institutions to join the PROCULTHER-NET effort to increase the protection of cultural heritage at risk within the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network.
During the closing session, Sneška Quaedvlieg - Mihailovic, Europa Nostra Secretary-General, and Stefan Bâlici, President of the Romanian Order of Architects presented the key points of the ‘Bucharest Manifesto’. In addition, Bâlici highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary approaches based on the knowledge and lessons learned by both cultural heritage and disaster management experts in order to effectively address the impact of climate change on heritage at risk, and pointed to the Union Civil Protection Mechanism initiatives, such as PROCULTHER-NET, as valuable resources in this effort.
11-12 November: International Conference "Resilience of cultural and natural heritage in the face of fires in times of climate change", Valparaíso (Chile). This Conference was organised by UNESCO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with the National Centre for World Heritage Sites and the Municipal Corporation of the World Heritage Site, Historical Area of the city-port of Valparaíso, to bring together experts from the five continents invited to discuss and raise awareness about the role of culture in reducing fire disaster risks, exchanging good practices and lessons learned. On 11 November, Cristina Escudero Remirez, coordinator of the UGRECYL Central Unit at the Junta de Castilla y León - JCyL (Spain), intervened in the panel entitled “Response and recovery to disasters with impact on heritage” to share the experience developed by this partner of PROCULTHER-NET in forest fire and fire risk management and inform the audience on the efforts made by the project consortium to foster interdisciplinary cooperation for the safeguard of cultural heritage at risk. In addition, this high-level meeting marked the launch of the “Fire risk management guide: protecting cultural and natural heritage from fire”, a publication from UNESCO targeting site owners/managers, teams and organizations responsible for the oversight and management of cultural and natural heritage wishing to strengthen their capacities in managing fire risks for cultural and natural heritage, but also in leveraging cultural heritage to mitigate fire risks and enhance disaster resilience.
11-13 November 2024: International Conference Cultural Property Protection in the 21st Century. Meeting Requirements across the Forces, Vienna (Austria). The Centre for Leadership and Defence Awareness of the National Defence Academy, supported by UNESCO and in cooperation with the Center for Cultural Property Protection of the University for Continuing Education Krems, the Austrian Society for Cultural Property Protection and Blue Shield Austria organised this international meeting in the wake of the celebrations for the 70° anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention. In order to foster an exchange on the elements useful for the integration of cultural heritage in their processes, the event mainly addressed representatives from armed forces. This target audience was invited to discuss common challenges and opportunities for improved and sustainable implementation of cultural property protection with international experts from the military, cultural heritage protection, academia and politics, with a focus on the lessons learnt from the civil protection and cultural heritage sectors. In this framework, Constance Domenech de Cellès, cultural heritage expert from German Archaeological Institute - DAI, was there to represent both the KulturGutRetter project and PROCULTHER-NET which represent two exemplary initiatives bridging the civil protection and cultural heritage sectors, respectively at national and European level. Recognising that the added value remains to prepare, connect and work together in ordinary times, so that synergies work effectively in the event of disaster or conflict, among the best practices mentioned during the panel sessions, there are the conduction of join training and field exercises with injects dedicated to cultural heritage, like in the EU MODEX Venice 2024, or the use of technology, e.g., the remote-sensing tools to monitor sites and carry out first damage assessment.
19 November 2024: Data management and interoperability in Civil Protection, Evora (Portugal) The event, organised by the Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission with the Evora University and the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection of Portugal, featured national and international speakers and provided a space for debate on the latest solutions and challenges in the field of data management and interoperability in civil protection, including for managing cultural heritage at risk. During the day, experts, academics and professionals exchanged on innovative technological solutions in the field, namely the development of platforms for emergency management, the use of artificial intelligence in civil protection, as well as technologies applied to heritage protection and major events. Juha-Pekka Jäpölä, DG ECHO project officer for PROCULTHER-NET 2, was invited to inform the audience about the potential of the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network to strengthen the know-how and practices underpinning the civil protection system in Portugal, thus improving the Mechanism’s overall capabilities to cope with disasters. To complete the panorama of innovative initiatives, Xavier Romão, expert from the University of Porto - UPORTO, shared PROCULTHER’s vision and the holistic approach adopted to preparedness and response actions in emergencies affecting cultural heritage. In particular, he focused on the project’s advanced training programme addressed to experts from both the civil protection and cultural heritage sectors, and on the Technical Bulletins, the PROCULTHER-NET’s must-read publications on state-of-the-art approaches and practices for the inclusion of cultural heritage protection in disaster risk management processes.
25 – 26 November 2024: International Conference on Cultural Property Protection in Crisis Situations, Budapest (Hungary) This two-day international conference was organised by the Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre and the Ludovika University of Public Service to bring together renowned experts and representatives from international organisations, law enforcement and cultural institutions, as well as representatives of the national civil protection, culture and defence sectors. The first day concentrated on the combat of illicit trafficking of artefacts, the role of law enforcement agencies and cooperation in tackling the problem, including the best practices in the field. The day after, national and international experts were invited to contribute to enhancing cooperation between the cultural and defence/security sectors in the development of emergency preparedness and disaster response capabilities of public collections. The programme put forward initiatives implemented in Hungary in very diverse and complementary sectors (e.g., higher education, community archaeology, legal and criminal case studies, looting, airport security) which were echoed by international organisations and experiences from other countries (Albania, Italy, Türkiye, and USA). During the conference were also presented the Hungarian interventions recently carried out by the national police forces in protecting cultural heritage or the contribution of national development agencies, like the Hungary Helps Agency, to raise-awareness on the subject. In the same day, two round tables highlighted the efforts undertaken in this field by the European Union - EU: the first dedicated to Horizon Europe projects aiming to help the fight against the illicit trafficking of artefacts (ENIGMA, AURORA, ANCHISE), the other on the role of the EU's possible support for cultural heritage protection worldwide. Two PROCULTHER-NET experts, Constance Domenech de Cellès, from the German Archaeological Institute - DAI and Veronica Piacentini, from the Italian Civil Protection Department - DPC, intervened in this second roundtable that covered the topic through different approaches. During the session, the audience took stock of the big steps forward made by European Union in the last five years for the cultural heritage protection: through the European External Action Service - EEAS, the interventions aim at including cultural heritage in all aspects of external actions, and especially in advisory missions; the Union Civil Protection Mechanism – UCPM can support national initiatives (e.g., in March 2022 Germany and Italy replied to the request sent by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture asking international aid to protect the country’s heritage affected by the war) and promotes European coordination, with initiatives like PROCULTHER-NET whose efforts achieved in including a cultural heritage scenario in the EU MODEX Venice last October. Finally, the role of the European Space Agency was also underlined in partnerships with technical institutes such as the Italian Center for Cultural Heritage Technology to monitor and assess cultural heritage through remote sensing. After the panel, Veronica Piacentini, architect and PROCULTHER-NET 2 cultural heritage expert from the Italian Civil Protection Department, shared the national civil protection model for protecting cultural heritage, based on a keen collaboration between disaster risk management and cultural heritage actors in emergency actions.
2- 5 December 2024: Focus on Conservation 2024 – Disaster Risk Management for Cultural Heritage (online) What can we do to protect cultural heritage before, during and after disaster strikes? This international conference - organised by ICOM-Brasil, ICOM-CC, Smithsonian and Leibniz-Gesellschaft – addressed the aspects of preparedness, training, response, research and networks to face and mitigate the effect of disasters on cultural heritage. On 4 December, Constance Domenech de Cellès from the German Archaeological Institute - DAI participated in the afternoon discussions in a dual capacity: to share the KulturGutRetter’s project experience in building a German international response unit for cultural heritage after disasters, and to inform the audience on the achievements and the upcoming activities of PROCULTHER-NET 2.
11 December 2024: Technical Seminar on Interventions in Historical and Artistic Heritage, Salamanca (Spain) The aim of this conference organised by the Professional Association of Fire Technicians (APTB) was to analyse the role of the fire brigade and emergency services in interventions against fires and other disasters impacting the cultural heritage, with the broad participation of speakers representing all actors involved in the disaster management processes: the academia and the civil protection as well as both the disaster management and cultural heritage sectors. Experiences ranging from prevention to response were discussed, with different approaches and methodologies to deal with this challenge. In this framework, Cristina Escudero Remirez, coordinator of the UGRECYL Central Unit at the Junta de Castilla y León - JCyL (Spain) presented PROCULTHER-NET, focusing on the methodology developed and the cross-sectoral collaboration that this initiative has fostered and nurtured over time, laying the foundations of the thematic community dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage at risk within the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network. The debate highlighted the initial difficulties, the need to integrate the protection of cultural heritage into civil protection regulations and plans, to keep working on raising the awareness of the emergency sector about the importance of cultural heritage and its vulnerability, and the need to reinforce collaboration, coordination and exchange of experiences.