Heritage and Resilience – Issues and Opportunities for Reducing Disaster Risk

This analytical report presents the current thinking in the field as well as various examples – from different regions of the world – of how heritage can be better protected from disasters, such as those provoked by climate change, while contributing to the resilience of societies. It aims to bring these important issues to the attention of the larger disaster risk reduction community and to stimulate wider discussion in the context of ongoing consultations around a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction and a post 2015 development agenda. In advocating for integration of these issues within both disaster risk and heritage conservation policies and practices, this paper promotes strategic partnerships that bring the knowledge and capacities of actors in the fields of cultural heritage and disaster risk together and encourages support to the initiatives of local governments and, most importantly, communities that safeguard our shared cultural heritage for resilience.