Cultural heritage risk management conference, Bangkok, Thailand

The International Conference on Cultural Heritage and Disaster Risk Reduction, Nov 18-20 2013, Bangkok, Thailand, will be held by SEAMEO SPAFA (Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts) with support from the Japan Foundation.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) aims to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones, through an ethic of prevention. Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyse and reduce the causal factors of disasters. It could be said that disaster risk reduction is about choices. Disasters often follow natural hazards and a disaster's severity depends on how much impact a hazard has on society and the environment. The scale of the impact in turn depends on the choices we make for our lives and for our environment. In other words, how prepared are we. Each decision and action taken can either make us more vulnerable to disasters or more resilient to them.

The Cultural heritage risk management conference is intended to provide updated clear information on the link between climate change and cultural heritage as well as practical steps that can be taken to alleviate negative impacts. In addition, while it is acknowledged that climate change is a major issue that impacts negatively on the environment and has subsequent consequences in relation to increased flooding, drought, rising temperatures, energy supplies, food supplies, social structures including migration, lack of resources leading to increased conflict, poverty, and other social ills; rarely is the impact of climate change on cultural heritage- both tangible and intangible- addressed. This conference aims to make explicit the link between climate change and the threat it poses to cultural heritage and to highlight the importance of adopting disaster risk reduction strategies. Moreover, without disaster risk reduction strategies in place, sustainable development is greatly affected.

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