CARIBBEAN HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE DISASTER AND CONFLICT INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE

Patricia E. Green

All Papers

Submission

Paper Title

CARIBBEAN HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE DISASTER AND CONFLICT INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE

Authors

Patricia E. Green

Modality

Session

Subject area

5. Disaster and Conflict Resilient Heritage - Cultural heritage is increasingly vulnerable to disasters and conflicts and subject to rapid destruction, as evidenced by the recent fires, floods, earthquakes and escalating armed conflicts in different parts of the world. At the General Assembly 2023 in Sydney, ICOMOS Advisory Committee approved the theme of “Disaster and Conflict Resilient Heritage - Preparedness, Response and Recovery” as the theme for the Triennial Scientific Plan 2024-2027. In keeping with the spirit of open, innovative, constructive intergenerational dialogue, and the strategic focus, this sub-theme will address the suitability of the Venice Charter with the theme of disaster and conflict-resilient heritage, emphasizing its broader implications for heritage discourse, development models, and resilience strategies.

Publishing Date

11/04/2025

Country of Publishing

Brazil | Brasil

Language of Publishing

Inglês

Paper Page

https://www.even3.com.br/anais/icomos-scientific-symposium-2024-439820/869488-caribbean-historic-urban-landscape-disaster-and-conflict-intergenerational-dialogue

ISBN

978-65-272-1284-3

Keywords

SIDS, Places of Memory, slave route, climate change, capital, intergenerational, cities, development, absence heritage, vernacular architecture, creole architecture, bohio, wooden architecture

Summary

Caribbean overview: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and their capital cities generally lack effective interpretation of their significance including the importance of their historical foundation and cultural evolution. Caribbean SIDS are impacted by disasters now heightened by climate change (www.un.org/ohrlls/content/about-small-island-developing-states). Additionally, conflicts abound across the region, and some of these are associated with poverty. Designated as most vulnerable environments primarily as island states, they experience developments, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods, volcanoes and associated health impacts. They have capitals that are port cities on coasts and riverbanks with many under threat by Climate Change sea-level rise (whc.unesco.org/uploads/activities/documents/activity-1135-18). Belize, is an exception because its capital of Belmopan is on the interior because a 1951 Hurricane destroyed the former port capital Belize City. The UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) recommendation (Jokilehto 2010) may be applied to all these capitals. The United Nations identifies Latin America and the Caribbean as comprising three sub-regions - seven states parties in Mexico and Central America (21%); - ten in South America (30%); - sixteen in the Caribbean (49%). Additionally, the Caribbean has fourteen associated member states making a total of thirty Caribbean SIDS. There are three capital cities with populations over one million, Santo Domingo (2.09M), Dominican Republic; Port Au Prince (2.4M), Haiti; Havana (2.1M), Cuba. All others are less than one million with Kingston (0.6M), Jamaica as the highest, and the lowest Hamilton (0.0008M), Bermuda. Caribbean SIDS and World Heritage: There is an imbalance in the representation of SIDS tangible heritage sites especially cities and their environs, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. There are twenty-three Caribbean properties on this List which includes seven World Heritage cities. With mitigating factors that threaten tangible preservation, the most significant is the historical environment associated with slavery, where many are destroyed because of the memory. Caribbean tangible heritage monuments and sites therefore bear significant importance in discussions over the 1964 Venice Charter. One immediate issue is the need for inclusiveness of this Charter over Caribbean Sites of Memory. The Venice Charter Article 1 and SIDS: The “concept” of a historic monument that embraces not only the single architectural work but also the urban or rural setting in which it is found is well articulated, however pertaining to the “evidence of a particular civilization”, may seem to place some conflicts and tensions in the Caribbean related to identifying a “significant development or a historic event.” This potentially becomes the source of vulnerability of the Caribbean heritage environment through intergenerational disasters and conflicts. Against this background, how does the Caribbean region appropriate cultural significance over monuments and sites with the passing of time? Hence heritage appears to be challenged surrounding site selection, urban morphology, architecture, and traditional knowledge to help mitigate disaster and conflict vulnerability exacerbated by rapid and frequently uncontrolled development lacking in most cases records of those tangible cultural history for knowledge transfer intergenerationally. How may this be reflected inside the Venice Charter? Discussion Session total 90-minutes: Moderated by both a chairperson and Q&A discussant, this single presentation Session is anchored around three 10-minutes video presentations, each discussing the Historic Urban Landscape with Intergenerational dialogue and the Venice Charter. It is critical to understand the complexity of the Caribbean with thirty territories embodying Danish, Dutch, English, French, and Spanish colonial past. Therefore, this single presentation uses videos each containing two Caribbean capital cities representing those that may be added, also those already inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Issues being discussed in this Session as a single presentation range from conflict in intergenerational dialogue interpretation of outstanding universal value, to development, earthquake, fire, and flood disasters, presented as case-studies on respective Caribbean territories. The featured case-studies in this single presentation are from the capitals of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and Kingston, Jamaica as capitals outside of the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) List. Those on the WH List are Santo Domingo, Dominion Republic; Willemstad, Curacao; Bridgetown, Barbados; Paramaribo, Suriname. This Session is structured into: 1.- Introduction (10-minutes); 2. – Video (15-minutes); 3.- Q&A (10-minutes); 4. – Video (15-minutes); 5. – Q&A (10-minutes); 6. – Video (15-minutes); 7. – Q&A (10-minutes); 8.- Closure (5-minutes). Conclusion: Conversations on the Venice Charter may also need to include issues of “Absence Heritage” (James-Williamson, Dolphy, Parker, 2024), that may provide some guidelines to enhance SIDS heritage conservation, especially in Caribbean historic urban landscape.

Title of the Event: ICOMOS SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM 2024
City of the Event: Ouro Preto
Title of the Proceedings of the event: ICOMOS 2024 Scientific Symposium Proceedings
Name of the Publisher: Even3
Means of Dissemination: Meio Digital

How to cite

GREEN, Patricia E.. CARIBBEAN HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE DISASTER AND CONFLICT INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE.. In: ICOMOS 2024 Scientific Symposium Proceedings. Anais...Ouro Preto(MG) Convention Center / UFOP/ UFMG Campus, 2024. Available in: https//www.even3.com.br/anais/icomos-scientific-symposium-2024-439820/869488-CARIBBEAN-HISTORIC-URBAN-LANDSCAPE-DISASTER-AND-CONFLICT-INTERGENERATIONAL-DIALOGUE. Access in: 07/07/2025