Concern for the preservation of urban heritage is no longer the preserve of the cultural elite. Increasingly local communities, organizations of civil society, and private citizens are participating in the designation and protection of urban heritage areas as promoters and supporters. This trend offers the opportunity to design and implement more inclusive and sustainable preservation and development processes for urban heritage areas. However, it also poses governance problems. The most significant are: the difficulties to harmonize the often conflicting goals and expectations of the variety of stakeholders and the slow involvement of private investors and individuals in the process—a condition to bring more resources to urban heritage areas and give sustainability to the preservation process.

This talk will discuss the opportunities and challenges emerging from this trend and suggest reforms to traditional urban heritage preservation planning and implementation methods to take advantage of the opportunities and confront governance problems. The presentation will make reference to four cases of urban heritage preservation in Latin America with different levels of involvement by different sets of stakeholders: Oaxaca in Mexico, Quito in Ecuador, Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, and Valparaiso in Chile. The results of these cases illustrate the impact on the sustainability of the conservation efforts of different forms of stakeholders’ involvement and suggest governance strategies that can improve the long-term sustainability of the preservation process.

Eduardo Rojas is a Resident at the American Academy in Rome for fall 2015. He is an independent consultant on urban development and visiting lecturer in historic preservation at the University of Pennsylvania.

The lecture will be held in English. The event is organized in collaboration with the International Centre of the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).