The UNESCO Office Amman has signed a partnership agreement with RLICC and in cooperation with the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority (PDTRA) and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan (DoA) to prepare an approach for risk management at the Petra Archaeological Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Property.
The main objective of the project is the identification of risks within the property. The project consists of 6 phases: (1) Definition of the boundaries of the World Heritage Property, (2) Outline of guideline and usage regulations for the Buffer Zone, (3) Definition of Risk Criteria and Risk Categories, (4) Core Risk Mapping workshop, (5) Definition of Risk Zones, (6) Delineation of a proposal for a Risk Management Plan of the PAP. Among these phases, the definition of the site boundaries and buffer zones responds to the call of UNESCO on the Retrospective Inventory, while the definition of risk criteria and categories serves as preliminary phase towards the mapping of the risks in the property. At all project stages integration between local and international experts was foreseen building capacity among the DOA and PDTRA.
The first part of the project was conducted in April 2011 and involved experts in heritage conservation from the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation at the K.U.Leuven as well as Jordanian experts. It was essential for setting up a plan for the incoming work, starting the mapping of the World Heritage property boundaries (Phase 1) and carrying out a reconnaissance mission leading to the outline of Risk Criteria and Risk Categories (Phase 3).
On the established basis of Risk Criteria, a Core Risk mapping workshop was undertaken by a group of conservation graduate students from the K.U.Leuven in cooperation with local stakeholders during the period of May 8-18, 2011. Given the extension of the property, risks were identified in four specific areas of the property, radiating from an area subject to high touristic development. The results were presented to stakeholders in Petra and Amman. The second part of the project is to be implemented in autumn 2011 and involves training courses, a fieldwork involving RLICC students and the draft of a risk management approach for the site.
