The ‘Green Paper for the sustainable management of cultural heritage’ includes examples of good practices with the Preventive Conservation Plan of the Altamira Cave: a comprehensive management tool for the development of measures and actions of conservation of the cave, through which working methods and response mechanisms are designed and implemented in response to situations of risk for the cave, cave art and people.
The Altamira Cave is an underground space formed by galleries and rooms of variable height, which was inhabited in two eras until about 13,000 years ago a landslide sealed its only entrance. Inside, there is a set of paintings and engravings dating from the Upper Paleolithic, declared since 1985 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Since its opening to the public, the impact of visitors on the cave has been a constant concern, which has favored many studies and research. In 2001, the Neocueva was opened to the public, a scientific and exact reconstruction of the original designed for visits.
The application of preventive conservation systems has a positive impact on the cultural sustainability of the good, establishing measures and actions that prevent deterioration.
In turn, the Plan has made it possible to identify the main risks for the Altamira cave, which has made it easier to focus human and economic resources on its research, reinforcing economic sustainability in its management. These risk factors are managed and investigated through the integration of multidisciplinary teams.
The applied research, in addition to improving the conditions of conservation of the cave, has allowed access to the citizens in a limited and controlled way. The establishment of this limited capacity is based on the time that one can remain inside the cave without breaking the environmental stability, and that if it were to overcome it would trigger deterioration processes.
The ‘Green Paper on sustainable management of cultural heritage’
This publication recently presented by the Minister of Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta, seeks to advance in the construction of a common management model that allows to face current and future challenges, ensure coherence between national policies and international standards, promote cooperation between manager and community, promote the implementation of evaluation and control instruments and encourage the adoption of a proactive approach in relation to sustainable development.
It also raises questions to answer or to reflect on: how to reconcile the conservation of cultural heritage with ecological awareness, how to apply energy efficiency criteria or how to make tradition an ally for sustainable management.
But the ‘Green Paper’ also aims to achieve social inclusion through cultural heritage, facilitate its universal accessibility or involve society in its management, as well as other major challenges it proposes to face in order to promote democratisation and citizen governance. Together with them, it proposes that the economic management of cultural goods can be viewed from a sustainable perspective.
The book can be consulted online through this link: https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/libro-verde-patrimonio/portada.html