30 June. A new regional programme for the conservation of cultural heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean (LATAM) will be launched in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 14 - 17 July 2008.

The meeting is jointly organized by ICCROM, IILA, Unión Latina, the Embassy of Colombia in Italy and the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, thanks to the generous support from the Colombian authorities.

The main objective of the LATAM programme is to create a network of persons and institutions to move together towards enhancing the care of cultural heritage in the region.

Special emphasis will be given to activities promoting the participation of all sectors dealing with conservation, leading to innovative and sustainable collaboration mechanisms.
 
More than forty conservation professionals from Latin America, the Caribbean and other countries have been invited for a pre-launch working meeting, in order to further develop the following themes, selected as priorities for the first phase of the programme:

1. training for the conservation of cultural heritage;
2. illicit traffic of cultural heritage;
3. definition of economic development indicators for conservation activities;
4. translation and creation of documentation related to conservation;
5. risk management for cultural heritage.

The third day of the meeting, 16 July, will mark the launch of LATAM. Invitations have been sent to institutions from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as a number of organizations with an interest in the region, with the aim of presenting the programme and discussing the results of the working groups. 

It is expected that this launch meeting will help to develop the strong partnerships required for the long-term success of the LATAM programme. 

For further information contact: latam (at) iccrom . org

Member States represented: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Venezuela

updated on: 1 September, 2008