UNESCO technical mission to visit Valparaiso World Heritage site in Chile and provide management recommendations

This expert mission is part of the collaboration offered by the Director-General of UNESCO during her official visit to the World Heritage site "Historic District of the Port City of Valparaíso", which took place in May 2022.

The objective is to provide the Chilean Government and the Municipal Corporation for the Administration of the World Heritage Site with technical advice to help guide future practices and strategies for the management, conservation and protection of the exceptional value of the site.

The results of the mission will also contribute to the finalisation of the Report on the State of Conservation of the site, a document currently under development that Chile must present to UNESCO in the context of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, which will take place in mid-2023.

The visit of professionals from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre will take place between 7 and 11 November 2022.  This technical mission, requested by the Government of Chile, will be led by Mauro Rosi, head of the Latin America and the Caribbean Unit of the Centre. He will be assisted by the international expert Luis Ignacio Gómez Arriola.

The agenda of the UNESCO mission includes meetings with Julieta Brodsky, Minister of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, Carolina Pérez, Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage and Jorge Sharp, Mayor of Valparaíso, as well as with the technical units of the municipality of Valparaíso, the National Cultural Heritage Service, the National Monuments Council, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the Ministry of Public Works and the Valparaíso Port Company.

Meetings are also planned with representatives of civil-society organizations, trade unions, professional associations and universities, among others, all of whom are involved at different levels with the heritage site.

"The guidelines that emanate from this visit will allow us to strengthen and help this unique site that is not only the heritage of a country, but of humanity as a whole, to prevail"

said Claudia Uribe, Director of the UNESCO Office in Chile.

The Undersecretary for Heritage, Carolina Pérez, appreciates the work carried out with various regional actors to advance the governance of the World Heritage site. "In this context we have extended an invitation to UNESCO, because we understand the needs of the World Heritage site in Valparaíso as our own. We hope that the representatives of the Organization will contribute, with their valuable vision, to an auspicious future of concrete actions.”

The Mayor of Valparaíso, Jorge Sharp, underscored the technical advice for the work already underway in the city. "This UNESCO mission is welcomed by the Corporation we created to manage, and address challenges of, the World Heritage site in Valparaíso. We look forward to UNESCO's recommendations to strengthen what has been undertaken."