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The international conference "Fire Resilience for Heritage in a Changing Climate" will be held on 11th and 12th November 2024 at the Parque Cultural de Valparaíso (471 Cárcel Street). This event, organised by UNESCO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with the National Centre for World Heritage Sites (Cultural Heritage Service, Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage of Chile) and the Municipal Corporation of the World Heritage Site, Historical Area of ​​the city-port of Valparaíso, will feature presentations by over twenty specialists from five continents.

Globally, cultural and natural heritage faces an increasing risk of fires, exacerbated by climate change. These disasters lead to the loss of tangible and intangible assets, negatively impact local communities, and cause severe environmental damage to vegetation, wildlife, water resources, air quality, and biodiversity. The main challenges include a lack of consistent monitoring and planning, insufficient integration of traditional knowledge in risk management policies, and limited involvement of local communities.

In Chile, the fires in the Valparaíso region in early 2024 heightened existing concerns about heritage vulnerability. In response, a pilot project was launched to reduce risks and strengthen response capacity to fires in cultural and natural heritage sites, supported by UNESCO's Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF). This project is being simultaneously developed at Los Alerces National Park in Argentina, and in both locations, the UNESCO Fire Risk Management Guide for Cultural and Natural Heritage, which will be launched at this international conference, will be adapted and implemented as a pilot.

During the conference, topics such as the role of heritage in reducing fire risks, response and recovery from fire disasters, the use of local and indigenous knowledge for resilience, and building a fire-resistant future through policies, training, awareness, and cross-sectoral cooperation will be discussed. Specialists from Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, Spain, the United States, France, Guatemala, Malaysia, Peru, South Africa, Suriname, Uganda, Uruguay, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will participate.

Within this context, the conference will bring together numerous speakers to discuss and raise awareness about the role of culture in reducing fire disaster risks, exchanging good practices and lessons learned. It will address topics such as the roles of cultural and natural heritage in the face of fires; response and recovery from fire disasters that have affected heritage; local and indigenous knowledge for resilience after fires; and building a fire-resilient heritage future through policies, capacity building, awareness, and cross-sectoral cooperation.

Following the conference, on 13th, 14th, and 15th November, a training programme will be held for 25 managers and administrators of cultural and natural heritage sites from Latin America and the Caribbean, including representatives from World Heritage sites in Chile.

This project is possible thanks to the support of the Heritage Emergency Fund and its donors: The Qatar Development Fund, the Government of Canada, the Kingdom of Norway, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the French Republic, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of Estonia, ANA Holdings INC, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Principality of Andorra, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Serbia.