12BBPP: inauguración | Hispania Nostra

12th Conference on Best Practices in Cultural and Natural Heritage: Effective Heritage Management as a Guarantee of its Conservation Opening Remarks Ramón Andrada González-Parrado, Member of the Governing Board and Representative of the COAM (Official Association of Architects of Madrid) at CIPHAN (Inter-American Commission on Natural Heritage) Francisco Menor Monasterio, Advisor to the ACS Foundation Araceli Pereda Alonso, President of Hispania Nostra https://www.hispanianostra.org/que-ha... Whenever we talk about cultural heritage, we tend to refer to all kinds of aesthetic and/or technical aspects (type, period, style, state of conservation, etc.), neglecting a particularly important aspect: management. Without proper assessment, its study, conservation, and enjoyment are simply impossible. Hispania Nostra has been working since its inception to promote the idea that cultural heritage belongs to us all, regardless of who owns it or who is responsible for its preservation, understanding it as a duty that concerns society as a whole. This shared responsibility for studying, preserving, and disseminating cultural heritage is exercised through the various government bodies, which, ultimately, are the instruments our societies have created to manage our affairs as effectively as possible. However, if we understand management as the set of decisions and actions aimed at achieving an objective—in this case, the preservation and enrichment of our cultural heritage—we must accept that it inherently involves public-private collaboration, given the complex combination of actions in such diverse areas as education, research, conservation, restoration, protection, dissemination, the economy, and so on. All these fields of action require, to a greater or lesser degree, the involvement of each and every one of us. It is clear that to effectively manage the multitude of aspects related to a cultural heritage like Spain's, given our inherently limited resources, we need foresight and a long-term vision to make generous, long-term decisions. We must acknowledge that it is impossible to immediately resolve all the problems posed by such an immense heritage, both in quantity and quality, as Spain's, and, at the same time, recognize our own temporal limitations. Therefore, it is essential to involve future generations. For this reason, Hispania Nostra believes that the intelligent management of cultural heritage contributes to social cohesion and presents a magnificent opportunity to work as a team, monitoring and slowing the deterioration of assets that may be at risk, until we have the necessary resources to undertake their restoration with the required guarantees. We understand that this task—the conservation of cultural heritage—is never truly finished.