The word cultural heritage brings to mind a broad range of items that reflect the history and development of a particular society or community. It can include monuments and buildings, works of art (paintings, drawings, prints, mosaics, sculptures), archaeological sites and more. But, as the term has evolved, it has also come to encompass the non-material traces that a community has created, which are part of its intangible heritage. This includes oral traditions, and a sense of communal identity.
Cultural heritage is often a source of pride for people of all backgrounds and nations. It can even help to define a person’s character, as well as their beliefs and values. A person’s heritage can be based on ethnicity, religion, family line or other factors that have defined their background over time.
While cultural heritage has many tangible and intangible components, it is essentially a part of a culture’s past that can be passed down from generation to generation. The preservation and protection of cultural heritage is therefore a crucial task for a community. Moreover, the development and sustainability of cultural heritage is important for a society’s future. This is because a culture that has been preserved and protected can provide a source of identity, a feeling of belonging and even economic benefits for the people who are a part of it.
Despite this, the value of cultural heritage is sometimes underestimated, which can lead to it being vulnerable to harm or neglect. The damage of cultural heritage can be caused by natural disasters, as well as human-made incidents such as war or civil unrest. The destruction of cultural heritage can have lasting effects on a society and its individuals.
As the world becomes more interconnected, people are becoming more interested in discovering their own cultural heritage. This is driving a demand for travel, and the growth of tourism as a result of this has helped to fund the preservation of monuments, languages and traditions around the world. This also helps to promote the sustainability of cultural heritage as it allows more people to experience it for themselves, and in turn become stewards of its preservation.
In addition, efforts to bring more rigor to the estimation of the economic, tangible and intangible value of cultural heritage are helping to make it more prominent as a resource that can contribute to sustainable development. This has been demonstrated by studies examining three heritage for development projects that have been funded by the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund: poverty alleviation in marginalised groups; gender equality and women’s empowerment; and environmental sustainability. These projects have highlighted how the contribution of cultural heritage to sustainable development is a key issue that needs to be addressed in global policy-making.