Preservation Actors: Challenges and Risks of Managing World Heritage Cities

Abstract

In Brazil, the policy of preserving cultural heritage has been developed for over eighty years. The international recognition of Brazilian cultural properties has been established in the country since 1980, with the inscription of Ouro Preto on the UNESCO World Heritage List. After more than 40 years of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (1972), 15 Brazilian cultural sites are part of this list, of which seven are historical cities, two are urban architectural ensembles, three correspond to archaeological sites, two of them in urban areas, one modern city, one urban cultural landscape and one mixed (cultural and natural) site. Analyzing the challenges and risks of preserving these sites implies understanding the actors of this preservation, what implications can be highlighted as a result of this recognition, and how to confront them with a view to providing sustainable management. The present text is based on the latest initiatives produced in the institutional field in order to contemplate, within the management framework, reflections and operative measures that favour the achievement of this objective. In this case, the national and international meetings produced at the initiative of Iphan in the discussion of the rehabilitation of historic urban sites (Brasilia 2002), the management of historical cities (Goias 2003), the management of modern cultural heritage (Belo Horizonte 2017), the management of World Heritage sites in Brazil (Goias 2018) and the economic potential of the heritage in its tourist dimension (Porto Alegre 2019) should be highlighted. In addition to this, the text also addresses the fronts of action undertaken by the non-governmental sector, committed in particular to the preservation of this heritage, such as the Organization of Brazilian World Heritage Cities—OCBPM, highlighting the results obtained in the process of articulation for a strategic management of Brazilian cities declared World Heritage, notably based on their national meetings. Finally, the text points out, on the one hand, the central demands of these cities in Brazil, identified and ratified in this process, and also signals the answers that the Public Power, on the part of the administration, is seeking to give, culminating in the presentation of reflections on the challenges of managing this World Heritage in Brazil. Aspects such as the preferential attention to be given through customized investments, the construction of concertation processes between the public and private sectors and the citizenry in order to guarantee sustainable processes, programmatic integration in the face of the recognition of the transversality of cultural heritage and its economic potential, should be highlighted.