Local economy about cultural heritage

• Urban Growth
  Cities, particularly in developing countries, have been steadily growing at a high rate, far outstripping population growth rates at the national or regional levels. This growth has also been a result of rural population migrating to urban areas to search for jobs and economic opportunities.
• Heritage and the local economy
  The success of a heritage conservation strategy largely depends on the strength of its links to the local economy. This linking will be important for the longer-term sustainability of the heritage programme and of the asset itself – particularly in developing countries.
• Job creation through heritage conservation
  A good heritage conservation strategy should contribute to overall developmental goals such as poverty reduction and job creation/income generation. The goal of job creation is particularly important, either directly in the heritage programme itself (for example, in construction or archaeological digs etc.) or indirectly through support services (for example, in shops, and restaurants, hotels for visitors, etc.). Job creation can be tourism-related (for example, hospitality, transportation etc.), handicraft-related (in the creation and in the marketing of handicraft items) or other types of jobs.

Poverty alleviation
Heritage conservation strategies intrinsically need to include job creation and income generation for the local community as critical components. Such strategies provide opportunities for the local community, and also ensure in the conservation and preservation of the heritage assets, thus alleviating poverty in the long-run.

• Skill transfer
  A critical part of a good heritage conservation strategy that fosters and preserves both tangible and intangible assets, is the issue of heritage skill transfer. Skill transfer can take place in a variety of ways. These include for example, apprenticeships where youth can learn the skills under a master craftsman. (Master craftsmen may in fact be designated as ‘living assets’ of the local culture, as is done in Japan). Other means of skills transfer include scholarship, academic research and other ways of local learning and doing.
• Urban identity
  Many cities have reinvented themselves to develop this heritage platform by building and emphasizing their historical roots and cultural assets. Developing and facilitating such a platform gives credence and justification for a city to provide a distinct urban identity to cultural expressions and manifestations.
• City pride
  The ultimate goal of all of the above actions – one that will ensure success of a heritage conservation strategy – is to develop pride in the residents of the city towards their culture and heritage. This will go a long way in facilitating active community participation in cultural heritage activities.

   Sustainability

• Developing a local meaning to sustainability
  Much as a small local problem cumulatively becomes a global problem, sustainability also starts with small, local actions taken individually and on a daily basis. It is these small actions that eventually helps attain broad sustainable development goals. Sustainable development, by its very definition, is local in its meaning!
• Sustainability about people
  That is why, at the center of the sustainability thrust, is the ordinary citizen, lending a lifestyle, sustainable or not, that has an eventual influence on the global environment. Sustainability is about changing individual behaviours, about lifestyles choices and about reducing our ecological impacts.
• Conservation is historical, cultural, and also ecological.
  Using sustainability as an eventual goal in conservation strategies has the added, multiplier benefits that will accrue over time. Conservation has to therefore include issues related not only to cultural and historical, but to ecological and natural assets of the locality as well.

Promoting heritage conservation through sustainability goals

Putting a value to the local assets that we appreciate – historical, cultural and ecological – is the starting point for heritage conservation and preservation. By assigning such a value, we ensure that ” … the needs of the present do not compromise those of future generations” Aiming for longer-term sustainability will include conserving heritage assets as well, because it calls for maintaining a delicate balance between the human need to improve lifestyles and feeling of well-being on one hand, and preserving local resources and ecosystems, on which we and future generations depend.