The General Directorate of Culture and Cultural Heritage brought together the inspection units of the seven island councils on the island of Lanzarote, in a meeting whose purpose has been to carry out a diagnosis of the resources, both human and technical administrative, in the performance of their functions, which currently respond to a pro-active criterion of intervention aimed at knowing the state of the cultural assets of the Canary Islands and, depending on their state, establishing the actions deemed necessary for their protection, as established by Law.
This meeting was attended by the councilors of the area of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and El Hierro, Ascensión Toledo, Rayco León and Emilio Víctor Hernández, respectively; the island director of Historical Heritage of Gran Canaria, Sebastián López, and the island inspectors and heads of service of Tenerife (Santiago Febles and José Carlos Cabrera), La Palma (Jorge Pais) Javier Velasco (Gran Canaria), Alejo Soler (Fuerteventura) and Ricardo Cabrera (Lanzarote).
All agreed with the general director of Culture and Cultural Heritage, Miguel Ángel Clavijo and his team, on the necessary cooperation of the Government with the island and local institutions, together with social agents, as an essential method to develop new guidelines for management, conservation and accessibility to cultural assets, given their connection and proximity. Likewise, it was agreed to give continuity to these meetings, "as a tool and monitoring table in the fulfillment of agreed objectives, with a biannual character, under the name, Autonomous Meeting of Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands", says Miguel Ángel Clavijo.
Ascensión Toledo, Councilor for Historical Heritage of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, stressed at the opening of the meeting that "this meeting is presented as an opportunity to reflect on how we can strengthen our actions and collaborate more effectively with a primary objective, such as protecting our culture and our heritage, fundamental elements that define us as Canarians".
Autonomous Meeting of Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands
For a planning of interventions and inspections, criteria such as procedures and management will be taken into account to improve the protection and security system; also the updating of the inventory of movable and immovable property and access to them. In addition, the objective is to work on the digitization and registration of cultural heritage, through municipal and island catalogs, necessary instruments to develop the actions established by the Law of Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands to these inspection units, whose updated files will also allow preventive conservation.
All this information will be included in the Information System of Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands (LAVA), which the Executive is finalizing. A web platform in constant updating, available to citizens, research staff and public administrations with all the information, graphic and audiovisual material on cultural assets, which until now is difficult to access due to its dispersion and heterogeneity. Mainly, the platform includes island catalogs, archaeological, ethnographic and paleontological municipal charts, files of Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC), reports on research in the various fields of heritage, as well as inventories of various kinds, without forgetting museums and their collections, and documentary and bibliographic heritage, training projects and links of interest, among others.
"The protection and conservation of cultural heritage begins with a recognition of each and every one of the elements that make it up. By having it inventoried and constantly updated, continuous diagnoses can be established to optimize interventions and thus carry out actions that reduce, minimize and even eliminate the effect of the risks and affections to which cultural assets are subjected," says the general director of the area. All this documentation, he adds, "will provide information to be taken into account to carry out priorities in the interventions, developing regular inspection and maintenance programs".
On the other hand, the need to carry out actions aimed at training forest agents and other security forces in the protection of cultural heritage was pointed out, mainly in the non-capital islands, which have few troops to act on the ground.
Finally, it was agreed that the next 'Autonomous Meeting of Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands' will be held on the island of Gran Canaria, in May 2024.