ALIPH’s Experience Protecting Heritage to Build Peace: The Early Lessons of ALIPH’s Efforts to Protect Heritage in Conflict and Post-conflict Areas

Abstract

Founded in March 2017, ALIPH or the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas supports heritage protection initiatives in crisis situations. Based on feedback from ten international and local heritage organisations with active projects in Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Iraq, Mali, and North-East Syria, this article addresses the challenges facing, benefits of, and opportunities related to heritage protection in conflict areas, with regard to sustainable development and peacebuilding. Supporting the heritage sector in conflict areas involves a set of challenges, from the security of heritage professionals and shortages of materials to the constantly evolving political situations. The political dimension of heritage protection is hardly understated in crisis situations. Constant dialogue, coordination, and advocacy with local authorities are key conditions for successful and sustainable intervention on the ground. This article argues that heritage protection makes an important symbolic and material contribution to recovery in conflict and post-conflict contexts. This is achieved by re-affirming the sense of identity within diverse communities, as well as by engaging and retaining local expertise and workforces and so stimulating local economies. Noting the impressive number of climate-change-affected regions situated in conflict-prone areas, the article also discusses the potential of heritage rehabilitation in mitigating at least some of the effects of climate change, e.g., by promoting local building techniques and materials. To continue to harness the benefits of cultural heritage protection, efforts should be pursued both at the level of international advocacy and through concrete on-the-ground interventions that demonstrate the benefits of heritage protection for peacebuilding and sustainable development.