I can assure you that not a week goes by without someone asking me how long we will have to wait before UNESCO declares Talayotic Menorca to be a World Heritage Site. People ask me at meetings, out on the street, both locals and people from elsewhere.
I really appreciate this concern, because it means that the project, as we have so often said, is not an initiative of the Consell, but of our whole society. People have gradually made this phenomenal challenge their own, and are now eager to see it completed, like a runner in sight of the finishing line. And so I feel it is my duty to write an article setting out an update as to the situation, and sharing the information we now have.
In short: the situation at UNESCO is highly complex, but very simple to explain. The World Heritage Committee, which is the body which approves new nominations, meets once a year. In 2022 it should have met between 19 and 30 June in the Russian city of Kazan, under Russia's presidency. However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February led to fears that the committee's meeting would be suspended, as did indeed occur.
There has since then been considerable diplomatic contact the international level, but so far this has all proved fruitless. Ukraine's allies find it intolerable that the World Heritage Committee should be presided over by a country that has invaded another, and that, aside from the human victims, which are of course the most serious, is also destroying Ukraine's historical and cultural heritage with its bombs.
For the moment there is no sign of when the meeting of the World Heritage Council could be rescheduled. On the worst-case scenario, we would have to wait until Russia's presidency of the Committee ends, which will be in November 2023. It may be that the international community agrees an intermediate solution, and that the UNESCO meeting can be held in another country, under another country's presidency. But for the moment there is no clear sign of how things will develop. It is all up in the air.
And meanwhile, what can we do? The painter Picasso said that inspiration does exist, but it has to find you hard at work. Similarly, you could say that the World Heritage designation of Talayotic Menorca will arrive, but must find us hard at work. What does that mean?
If we turn the clock back to 2017, when UNESCO postponed the declaration of Talayotic Menorca, in its report it set out a series of recommendations. The most important: restructure the nomination to take into account the landscape surrounding the prehistoric sites, and not only the monuments themselves; draw up and approve a Menorca World Heritage Management Plan; create a specific management structure, separate from the World Heritage Service; and create a forum for owners and managers of privately owned archaeological sites. The good news is that all of this is already in progress:
- The new nomination, which has completed all the processes and has now been evaluated, comprises nine components or territorial areas, which include monuments and their associated landscape.
- In July 2021 the Consell Insular approved the Talayotic Menorca Management Plan, including the timeline of the work to be conducted over the next decade, which is already fully in force and operational.
- On 20 December 2021 the Consell created the Talayotic Menorca Agency, which is the structure responsible for managing World Heritage in Menorca. Since then, its participatory bodies have progressively been set up (scientific council, social council), as well as the bodies of governance (governing council and executive committee). And the process of hiring another person to handle the Agency's management has already begun, along with another figure for administrative services.
- Lastly, on 9 August 2021 the Association of Talayotic Menorca Owners and Managers was founded, and has now begun to stage gatherings of the owners and managers of private archaeological sites. And its president has been elected a member of the Governing Council of the Talayotic Menorca Agency.
Those involved with UNESCO state the increasing importance that a World Heritage nomination should demonstrate through acts, rather than simply an impressive dossier, that it is a serious-minded proposal, with rock-solid dedication. And so when UNESCO tells you what you need to do in order to resubmit your proposal to the World Heritage Committee, you have to get your homework done before you turn up, not simply give them a statement of intent.
Ultimately: we do not know when we will get the call from UNESCO, but when they call they will find that we have got
the job done as regards the recommendations they gave us in 2017, with plenty of projects in progress. We still do not know when we will receive the World Heritage declaration, but we are going ahead as if we already had it, which gives us credibility and strengthens our chances, as the Ministry of Culture has repeatedly acknowledged.
Right now, aside from the regular administration of the nine components of the nomination, we have a highly ambitious investment plan for which we have received an allocation of European funds and from the Ministry of Culture, totalling more than a million and a half euros. Don't worry, they will find us hard at work. Full steam ahead.
I hope I have provided some clear and useful information for everyone with an interest in the subject. And of course, both I and the staff of the Talayotic Menorca Agency are here to help if there is anything you would like to ask, suggest or propose.
Author: Miquel Àngel Maria, conseller of Cultural Affairs and president of the Talayotic Menorca Agency.