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European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations
Project

Protecting Cultural Heritage from the Consequences of Disasters (ProCultHer)

Area of activity / Keywords:

civil protection, cultural heritage, preparedness, resilience, population, module, asset, SOP, toolkit, methodology, exercise

Summary of the action:

Cultural heritage is a primary source of identity for people in Europe and rest of the world. It is therefore the core of social well-being and resilience of individuals and communities. Cultural heritage is also an important contributor to European and world economies, as heritage tourism is generating ever increasing revenues. In the European Union, which declared 2018 the European Year of Cultural Heritage, tourism accounts for 10 percent of GDP and 12 percent of employment. Recent earthquakes in Italy in 1997, 2009, 2016-2017, in Haiti in 2010 and in Nepal in 2016 demonstrated how vulnerable cultural heritage is to the impact of natural hazards. As a consequence countries like Italy started developing preparedness measures for protecting cultural heritage during emergencies and international organisations like UNESCO and ICCROM started advocating the importance of cultural heritage protection from the consequences of disasters. Also the Union Civil Protection Mechanism considers cultural heritage protection in emergency an important civil protection sector.

Building upon recent experiences on the protection of cultural heritage during disasters in Italy, France, Spain and Turkey, on the achievements of the EU funded PROMEDHE project and on available tools and methods developed by relevant international organisations, the “ProCultHer” project aims at:

  • Developing a common European methodology along with standard operating procedures for protecting cultural heritage during emergencies at EU level,
  • Promoting the development of preparedness arrangements in this sector in a number of UCPM participating States,
  • Creating a multi-national, multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral asset able to provide guidance to interested States for developing preparedness measures for the protection of cultural heritage during emergencies and to intervene globally, in case of international emergency, to support national response efforts of affected countries in this sector.

Beneficiary

PRESIDENZA DEL CONSIGLIO DEI MINISTRI - DIPARTIMENTO DELLA PROTEZIONE CIVILE
VIA ULPIANO 11, 00193, ROMA (IT)
www.protezionecivile.it

Project coordinators

FONDAZIONE HALLGARTEN-FRANCHETTI CENTRO STUDI VILLA MONTESCA - (IT)

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION OF CULTURAL PROPERTY - (IT)

MINISTERE DE L'INTERIEUR - (FR)

CONSEJERIA DE CULTURA Y TURISMO DE LA JUNTA DE CASTILLA Y LEON - (ES)

Presentation at the kick off meeting