Heritage expert and former director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, Francesco Bandarin, has called on the heritage sector and the governments that support it to increase efforts to end wilful annihilation of historic sites by the likes of ISIS.
Speaking at CyArk’s annual summit, Bandarin – who currently serves as professor of urban planning and urban conservation at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice – called for an end to the wanton destruction taking place in countries such as Iraq and Syria.
“We are saying ‘enough’ to heritage destruction of these important sites,” said Bandarin. “The main challenges we currently face are the limits imposed on us. This isn’t a criticism, what we see in the field today is total destruction. While technology has developed significantly in the past 50 years, there is still a big gap between the tools we have to prevent or preserve, and the destruction these in danger heritage sites face from the likes of ISIS.”
Bandarin, who held key roles in UNESCO between 2000 and 2014, said that beyond organisations such as CyArk using developing technologies to map and preserve heritage sites, the governments of the world need to work closer with heritage organisations to help these efforts, so that heritage sites can be saved even in the worst crises.
“This gap between tools and destruction prevention is very serious,” continued Bandarin. “It’s not acceptable, and we need a governmental level push to try to bridge that gap. If we can work closer with governmental organisations, then maybe we can limit the disaster on the levels we’re seeing today."
Bandarin noted that one positive from the recent heritage destruction is that it has helped clearly define these sites as something worth preserving. However the modern era has also brought in the dawn of modern warfare, which in many instances is wiping heritage landmarks completely off the map.
“There are many examples of heritage destruction and many examples of annihilation,” said Bandarin. “For thousands of years, symbols of culture, symbols of religion, symbols of community have been destroyed. This destruction is in our DNA. In the past 100 years or so however, modern scientists started to define heritage – something we consider our own culture, policy, identity a part of our existence. This destruction is in our culture, but for the first time relatively speaking we are trying to prevent that, with the development of heritage culture.”
“In the modern era, heritage came under attack when war became industrialised. In World War One for example, which just hit its centenary, it was the first time we would see acts as we are seeing today. A lot of cities were affected, with heritage targeted by both sides and left in ruins.
“Unfortunately, war has remained with us. Contemporary conflicts over the last 20-30 years have ravaged the planet and the planet’s heritage, the major threat right now being ISIS.”
Beyond government intervention, Bandarin praised the work of CyArk, also highlighting other methods used in the fight against heritage destruction.
“The question is what can we do?” he said. “For many years national treaties have attempted to prevent these things. When there is war, these treaties come into effect but as you can imagine this isn’t always effective. Soldiers are now being trained to recognise heritage and prevent its destruction wherever possible. It’s a very important step to establish these guidelines if we want to safeguard heritage in conflict zones.
“The other place we can combat this is on the black market. When ISIS destroys these sites, they steal items from them and sell them to arts dealers. If we can cut them off there it will make a significant difference as a preventative measure.”
Attractions Management is on hand at the two-day summit in Berlin so be sure to check back here for all the latest developments on the heritage preservation event.
