From tomorrow, about 150 experts from the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) will start their annual administrative meetings at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.
The weeklong event includes meetings of all the main committees within the organisation, such as the executive and the advisory committees, but will also include a scientific symposium on the effects of global climate change on heritage.
We do not have to be experts to know that the world is going through drastic climate changes. It is a fact known to everyone that our world is feeling all the pressures of these changes. We normally associate climate change with the environment but these change are seriously affecting cultural heritage as well, both the natural and cultural sites. These changing patterns also affect our personal lives, tourism and the way we make use of our resources and thus create economic problems on the preservation of our heritage as well.
Knowledge about these changes is on the increase, yet most of us ignore these changes. We all hope that somehow we will not be affected. We can no longer ignore the issue. Malta in particular, like any island nation, has to look at the time not very far away when these climatic changes can seriously affect our daily life.
In the heritage sector the discussions have only recently been started. The first concrete steps were taken by Unesco's World Heritage Centre in 2006 and since then the matter has been on the agenda of various meetings.
ICOMOS will discuss this theme during the scientific symposium on Wednesday, which is open to the public, who must register at raymond.j.jones@gov.mt.
There has not been much support for the action that has been requested. Most countries already face difficulties in funding cultural heritage and fear the need of increasing this funding by taking into consideration climate change as well.
As usual, the environment gets substantial funding but cultural heritage, the source of so much tourism revenue, hardly gets attention.
Cultural heritage managers need to look at preventive action through strengthening monitoring exercises. Any action must take into consideration every effort to mitigate the effects of climate change.
We must take corrective action, especially in our management plans, to reflect what needs to be done. We must share our knowledge with other stakeholders, both nationally and internationally. This is an important step as well to bring closer together the cultural and natural sectors.
In practical terms, for instance, can we plan to conserve the bastion walls and ignore what is happening in the sea? Of course not. We must join the needs of both our natural and heritage sites.
Dr Bondin is the founder and current president of ICOMOS Malta.