Report on the Joint WHC–ICOMOS Advisory Mission to Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto), Italy, 8-12 October 2012

This joint World Heritage Centre - ICOMOS Advisory Mission had a task to assess the State of Conservation of the World Heritage property and to provide technical advice on remedial measures and risk preparedness in view the damages caused by October 2011 floods and landslides.

The mission has learned about the extraordinary efforts made jointly by the authorities, local communities, individuals and associations during and after the disaster, all of which has strengthened a feeling of solidarity in the whole region and made the fast recovery possible. However, the disaster has revealed the vulnerability of the property and calls for urgent actions for a coordinated and balanced management system. The process of degradation of the cultural landscape concerned the mission, as the living landscape is the prerequisite and threshold for the maintained Outstanding Universal Value. The mission emphasizes that the main challenges today regard a long-term management system where the living landscape aspect is of highest priority.