The proceedings of a technical workshop under the theme “Challenges and potential of intervention in historic urban landscape”, organized at the initiative of the Foundation for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage of Rabat, chaired by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, kicked off on Thursday.
This workshop is part of the celebration of the tenth anniversary of “The Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape,” adopted in November 2011 by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Celebrations that start today with this workshop and will run until next November.
Speaking on this occasion, in the presence of the wali of the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Othmane El Ferdaous, said that the concept of “historic urban landscape”, relatively new, exceeds the physical boundaries of that of the urban center or historic center by including the sustainable environmental dimension and the intangible one.
El Ferdaous also recalled the previous workshops organized by the Foundation, including one on the legislative dimension of the protection and preservation of heritage.
In this context, he noted that the Ministry has submitted a new bill on heritage, which comes to update the law No. 22-80 on the conservation of historic monuments and sites, inscriptions, objects of art and antiquity, with provisions that take care of this concept of historic urban landscape and all the new challenges that arise including architects and heritage curators.
For his part, secretary general of the Foundation for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage of Rabat, Karim Tajmouati noted that it is essential to think about a broader integration of all heritage, cultural and landscape values in the strategies of conservation and urban development in the face of constraints that are becoming increasingly diverse.
In this regard, it was necessary to put the tools, carried by the recommendations of UNESCO concerning the historic urban landscape, at the service of urban conservation, he added.
Minister of National Territorial Planning, Housing and City Policy, Nouzha Bouchareb, said that the participation of her department in this meeting further strengthens its interventions on the operational and institutional levels and in terms of training.
Regarding the institutional aspect, it provides for the involvement of urban agencies in the implementation of safeguarding projects, Bouchareb told the press, adding that the Ministry intervenes at the level of 51 cities for the preservation of heritage in the medinas by mobilizing two billion dirhams.
As for Karim Hendili, head of the culture program at the UNESCO office for the Maghreb, he noted that the debate, which will be conducted with the institutions concerned and experts, will focus on several fundamental issues: how can we use the heritage as an opportunity for development? Are urban development and heritage preservation compatible?.
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