How do we protect heritage?

1. Providing protection statutes at international, national and regional level

We draw attention to the fact that UNESCO includes on the World Heritage List at the request of national authorities the most valuable elements of intangible heritage that demonstrate outstanding universal value, integrity and authenticity. 

But what about the rest of the intangible heritage not subject to international protection? To what extent do States succeed in protecting their national intangible heritage? Protecting, safeguarding and saving them becomes much more difficult than those that already enjoy international UNESCO status because they do not benefit from carefully monitored management plans.

2. Implement measures and projects to support the safeguarding of intangible heritage

Projects can take various forms from international, cross-border to national and regional cooperation projects. The Council of Europe indicates a series of concrete measures aimed at: perpetuating traditional skills by passing them on from one generation to the next, innovative use and diversification of cultural resources with the support of new scientific and technological means, and re-use of digital cultural heritage content to enhance cultural diversity (European Commission, 2014). Our HEART project is a concrete example of this.

3. Digital heritage as an opportunity to preserve intangible cultural heritage

Digitisation could be seen as a concrete measure to save heritage. Starting from the fact that huge progress is currently being made in the use of digital technology, the Council of Europe, through its experts, has come to the conclusion that we can use it to the benefit of saving cultural heritage, because digital technology facilitates faster access to various forms of heritage, facilitates the exchange of experience and good practice at European level between different actors in the heritage field. Many cultural activities are already taking place in a digital environment, creating materials that complement cultural heritage, a source of rescue and preservation.

However, it is necessary to ensure that the primary resource — the ‘original’ — is not neglected in the enthusiasm for the ‘virtual’ transition. This need concerns both born-digital material and original, pre-existing material: as new technology tends to reconstitute older, inaccessible material and transfer it to the general public without great expense (Council of Europe, 2005). 

Innovations in digital heritage are increasingly used in cultural heritage management. They are multidimensional in nature and are used for storing, monitoring, distributing, demonstrating data. These techniques are very useful because they can process and store large databases. Digital platforms or websites are an example. Recently the integration of photographs into virtual reality is a form of preservation of intangible heritage. Where photographs have lost their clarity or old records are incomplete modern techniques offer the potential to enhance or reconstruct the missing data.

4. Education through transformative learning

We will focus on transformative learning because it is the working method of our HEART project. It involves civic engagement and the active participation of all stakeholders interested in saving intangible heritage.