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EDITORIAL1664
April 2009
Crisis and Opportunity: a glance towards the Economics of Conservation
The world is said to be in crisis. People are facing new realities and as our perspective of the world we live in changes, it also changes our own personal values. Although most of these problems initially started in the economic domain, we should not forget it is the economy that runs our entire existence. And cultural heritage is no exception.
The economic value of Cultural Heritage is unquestionable: being part of the national identity, important for both local citizens and foreign visitors, tourism is a drive of progress, creating employment and originating revenue at local and national levels. It is obvious, thus, that conservation of the cultural stock is important. Despite this, there are virtually no studies of the economic impact on conservation of cultural heritage. European countries spend less than 1% of their gross domestic product on culture, of which conservation is only a tiny fraction. Cultural heritage and its protection are, however, presented as a priority in Europe. Isn’t that an apparent contradiction? Conservation is normally taken for granted by the general public and it is seen as a governmental role which automatically preserves and protects at all cost. However, lack of investment in conservation is the order of the day. And whoever is in the market right now is feeling it. Even more so, I dare to say, that investment in the conservation of cultural heritage was never as serious as in other fields considered to be of more importance. One of the problems of conservation is its economical sustainability, or its capacity for investment return, in order to maintain the cultural stock. When sustainability is assured, for example through tourism, I believe that the investment in conservation is even greater. However, we can not rely only on factors such as tourism, which are seasonal and tend to be volatile, as it has now been proved. Thus, protective strategies have to be engineered and implemented. These strategies should be drawn up by the many different actors in the field, among which conservators should be included. How conservation is made, who does it and its quality are essential aspects for the outcomes of those strategies. Beyond a general strategy, these must also have a local dimension. Conservation-restoration is usually a specialised service provided by small and medium enterprises which could benefit from measures to promote employment. Nowadays, due to the economic constraints several companies are being driven to bankruptcy, closing down due to the lack of work and often professionals are migrating to other fields seeing that they can’t survive on their true vocational path. Meanwhile, a large part of our precious specialised workforce is being lost. If we are to survive, to maintain our profession and its relevance to the protection of cultural heritage, we should also question the models we have been following so far and reassess our actions, from business models to services we provide to the society. Everything is open to reassessment. What better time to do it than now? Rui Bordalo, Executive Editor
Permanent link to this resource: http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/754
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