Mazars teams up with the management of World Heritage.

While the debates of UNESCO’s General Conference are ending : Officiel Launching of the first international scholarship programme for future World Heritage Site Managers.

The Association Vocations Patrimoine presided by the Professor Yves Coppens and his first partners, AXA and MAZARS, in co-operation with UNESCO and supported by the French Minister of Culture, Mr Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, launch a new training programme for the profession of World Heritage Site Manager, through co-sponsored fellowships. The first edition of this programme is an initiative taken by French enterprises. The groups MAZARS and AXA sponsor the Association Vocations Patrimoine, initiator of the programme with UNESCO in order to respond to the present need for multi-disciplinary training for management and new techniques favouring the sustainable development of sites.

These fellowships mobilized both the private and public sectors and enhance a profession and an expertise, which is specific to the conservation of more than the 812 World Heritage Sites.

Next January, 5 fellowships for the Management of World Heritage Sites, both natural and cultural, will be awarded to the prize-winners carriers of innovative projects, allowing them to obtain a european master for site managers awarded either by the University of Cottbus (Germany), or by the University College of Dublin (Ireland). The Minister of Culture, Mr Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, said on the 18th October that « A French school for this type of training will be created shortly in France». It is the first time that the World Heritage Centre participates in such a specific fellowship project, open to all the regions. The Directeur General of UNESCO, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, underlined last Octobre 10th – during the 15th session of the General Assembly of the State Parties to the 1972 Convention- the importance he gave to « the training for management plans and for corrective conservation policies». The concept of the programme and its setting rests on an original federative strategy: the prize-winner may become a site manager and implement a innovative project in a world heritage site; the partners of the Association Vocations Patrimoine may thus work for the enhancement of the identity of a country or a region.

Regarding the programme of Vocations Patrimoine, its President, Professor Yves Coppens specified that «today it is an excellent means to reconcile culture, economy and European construction ». Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Assistant-Director General of UNESCO for Culture, added «but heritage is not only rich in symbolism, filled with meaning and significance. It is equally the sign of development. There are numerous examples of economic growth favored by a new approach to management of cultural and natural heritage,source of employment for local populations.», words underlined by Mr Francesco Bandarin, Director of the World Heritage Centre «It is essential to facilitate the access to knowledge and know-how, which will allow its saveguard. This know-how implies linking « protection » and « tourism », «viable management» and «enhancement».

"The programme « Managers des sites du patrimoine mondial » is totally in line with the will of AXA to participate in educational actions for conservation and for transmission of heritage. AXA is particularly attached to the international aspect of this sponsoring programme, which corresponds to the geographical and cultural diversity of the Group today." Ms Claire Dorland-Clauzel, SEVP Communications and Brand of the AXA Group, in charge of Sustainable Development continued saying.

«International sponsorship, original in its content but equally by its alliances of public and private partners, tends to show, that culture and economy are at the service one of the other, to serve the development of all.», Mr Patrick de Cambourg, President of the Group Mazars concluded.

This programme, which aims at preserving the world treasures for futurs generations, makes the fields of Sustainable Development, Culture, Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Education, Training and Management meet with a European and International optic. I twill of course be open to world entreprises, since as André Malraux had foreseen while campaigning to save Abou Simbel « the first world civilization publicly claims the world’s art as its indivisible heritage ».