Capacity building seminar for site managers, Vilnius, 18-20th October, 2017 (Gebėjimų stiprinimo seminaras vietos valdytojams, 2017 m. spalio 18-20 d., Vilniuje)

  

    The seminar was led by international experts – Dr. Christopher Young, Dr. Britta Rudolff, Mr Steffan Wessman, Ms Burcu Özdemir and Mr Richard Veillon, and attended by site managers and representatives of world heritage properties of Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania.

    In reference to the Site Managers World Heritage Forum, hold during the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee in Krakow, the idea of the seminar was to bring a particular attention of the importance of site manager‘s role in implementing the World Heritage Convention and to work continuously on stronger consolidation between the procedural world heritage protection system and site managers, who safeguard outstanding universal value and constitute the World Heritage Convention in situ. Special focus of the seminar in Vilnius was on strengthening site managers’ abilities to consolidate
their institutional and social position, specifying determination of their functions, role, competence, responsibilities, and developing of their skills on cooperation, communication, and mediation.

    The Operational Guidelines of World Heritage Convention do not give a specific definition of the site manager’s role, and it varies much in different countries. Nevertheless, the site manager’s role becoming more and more complex due to the expanded concept and approaches of the world heritage, new treaties, recommendations, and regulations interlaying on the territory of the world heritage property. Thus, experts and participants of the seminar have agreed that the role of the site manager requires more formalized mandate, and its position, functions and competences should be better explained and integrated into the Operational Guidelines of the World Heritage Convention. We kindly sharing the final document of the seminar – Recommendations on the World Heritage Site Manager’s Role, Functions and Competences for your consideration and reflections towards better implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

Presentations: