Regional Capacity Development Workshop ‘Preservation of Documentary Heritage for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management’

29–30 November 2018, Ariya Hotel, Thimphu,

Opening remarks by Eric Falt, Director and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, , and

Your Excellencies, Lyonpo Sherub Gyeltshen Minister of Home and Cultural Affairs, and Jai Bir Rai, Minister of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan;

Distinguished speakers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here in Bhutan today, with colleagues from Dhaka, , Kathmandu and . UNESCO is not resident in Bhutan but we are very keen to support the Government and people of Bhutan in our areas of competence. In particular, given the rich cultural heritage of Bhutan, we are at your disposal, Your Excellencies, so that one of your many beautiful sites can finally be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Most of you are specialists, working at the helm of policy, management and practice related to the preservation of documentary heritage. You are aware of the importance of archives and libraries for preserving a country’s history. You know too of the extreme vulnerability of documentary heritage to time, and natural and man‐made disasters.

The present regional capacity development workshop in Thimphu seeks to examine the preservation of documentary heritage in the context of strategies for disaster management and disaster risk reduction. Indeed, a key recommendation that emerged from UNESCO’s 38th General Conference in 2015 was that capacity‐building measures must become critical components of preservation efforts; and that curatorial best practices, technology and forensic skills must be harnessed for preservation in constantly changing environments. We expect that this workshop will contribute towards these twin objectives of capacity development, and effective documentary preservation in volatile environments.

The phrase ‘constantly changing environments’ has an especially disturbing resonance for South Asia and the Asia Pacific, which continue to be the most disaster‐prone region in the world. As a recent study by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) noted, of the 344 natural disasters around the world in 2015, 160 (or almost 50%) occurred in South Asia and the Asia Pacific. The region’s vulnerability to natural disasters has direct implications for its documentary heritage. For instance, in Sri Lanka alone, the tsunami of 2004 damaged or destroyed 170 school libraries, 55 public libraries, and at least 70 libraries attached to religious institutions. More recently, the 2015 earthquake in severely damaged the country’s national library and several other archives. The devastating floods in the state of Kerala in India earlier in 2018 caused incalculable damage to Kerala’s many repositories of documentary heritage. Also, the rise of extremism and radical groups in South Asia and the Asia Pacific has led to conflicts and man‐made disasters that could threaten the existence of documentary heritage.

Exactly a month ago, UNESCO convened an international meeting in Panama City, where experts defined the links between documentary heritage and sustainable development, and argued that the preservation of documentary heritage has environmental, social and economic impacts. Seen from an environmental perspective, documentary preservation is an exceptionably eco‐friendly and sustainable form of development. The social potential of documentary heritage – in terms of strengthening people’s sense of identity, and building bridges for peace and cooperation – is self‐ evident. Finally, from an economic angle, documentary heritage offers access to information and knowledge, which act as engines for intellectual and economic growth. We hope you will reflect on some of these points as you deliberate on how to protect documentary heritage from disasters.

Dear friends, many of you are already acquainted with UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme that seeks to promote the preservation of documentary heritage, and encourages member states to identify, preserve and bring before a global audience works of outstanding historical and cultural significance. Inscribing documentary heritage on the Memory of the World Register, however, is just one part of the programme’s larger focus on preservation, access and awareness‐building.

The process of submitting nominations for the Memory of the World Register is currently being reviewed. But in the interim, we urge you to work closely with stakeholders in your respective countries to establish the necessary coordinating mechanisms such as Expert Groups and National Committees. These could play a steering role in identifying documentary collections, advocating for their preservation, and building local capacity for implementing preservation plans. At present, it appears to me that there is a definite need among all the countries of the South Asian subregion to strengthen their in‐country mechanisms for preserving documentary heritage.

Today, as we begin our deliberations on making the preservation of documentary heritage an integral part of measures to manage and mitigate disasters, let us reaffirm our commitment to certain key Targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. Let us resolve to:  ‘Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate‐related hazards and natural disasters […]’ (SDG 13.1); and  ‘Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s natural and cultural heritage’ (SDG 11.4)

I wish you the very best for the workshop. Thank you.

Eric Falt Director and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka