Towards a More Strategic Approach to Disaster Risk Reduction

Abstract

It is evident that the damage from disasters, including to heritage resources, is increasing every year with tragic consequences for people and their livelihoods. It is believed that the risks from disasters can be significantly reduced through appropriate policies, practices, and proper planning. The intention of this paper is to highlight some of the efforts made by ICCroM (International Centre for the study of the Preservation and restoration of Cultural Property) together with its partners in achieving these objectives. Furthermore, the paper highlights one of the activities recently carried out on the theme of integrating traditional knowledge systems into risk management strategies. ICCroM over the last years has worked with its Member states and partners to address the issues relevant to disaster risk planning and management by understanding the existing knowledge gaps and developing appropriate approaches to address them. attention has also been paid to understanding the role of heritage in disaster risk reduction, as this paper will emphasize. In the process of working on our activities in this field, it was revealed that there is a lack of sufficient capacity within the heritage field to effectively plan for disaster risk, and a lack of resource materials to support those in charge of planning for disaster risk. as an initial response to these two important problems, in 1998 ICCroM, in cooperation with ICoMos and the unesCo World Heritage Centre, published Management Guidelines for Risk Preparedness for World Cultural Heritage by Herb stovel, which has been widely diffused and has been translated into several languages. Furthermore, with assistance from the World Heritage Centre, ICCroM developed a set of training materials which have been tested in a number of countries. risk management components have also been incorporated into various training programmes of ICCroM, and a specific line of action on Museum emergency Planning has been introduced in conjunction with ICoM and the Getty Conservation Institute. Activities