Iberarchivos commemorates today the International Day for Disaster Reduction, a date established with the aim of minimising the risks arising from natural disasters and generating a global culture of prevention and preparedness for natural phenomena.
When such a disaster strikes, human lives are paramount, but secondly it is essential to protect documentary heritage. A disaster of this kind is the most critical situation an archive can face. The causes are very varied, but they generate violent alterations that in a very short time are capable of completely destroying documents, deposits and entire archives.
Most disasters can be avoided through disaster planning or disaster management, which encompasses prevention and preservation techniques. In addition, they allow the establishment of action protocols and the gathering of the necessary resources to act correctly in the protection and salvage of documentation.
One of the lines of the Iberarchivos Programme is the promotion of disaster prevention, dedicated to projects that seek to carry out preventive actions against the effects of disasters in archives, caused by different types of catastrophes, such as fire, water, physical forces, meteorological phenomena or by human action, through acts of vandalism, sabotage, acts of war or simply accidental failures.
Here are some of the projects focused on disaster prevention:
One of the most outstanding projects is the 2017/002 “Preventive conservation of archives in cases of natural disasters” research project carried out by the National Archive of Chile and which consisted of collecting the knowledge installed in Ibero-America around natural disasters and the threat of loss or damage for archives faced with these phenomena. The main agents identified were: earthquakes, floods, fires, plagues, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. This project included the creation of a document entitled “Compilation of the current situation of Iberarchivos for emergency management preparedness”, a synthesis of the bibliographic production, the creation of guide booklets for dealing with emergencies, and the establishment of a 3-year work plan (2018-2020). The project team was composed of Emma de Ramón Acevedo, Director of the National Archive of Chile and responsible, Natalia Ríos Martínez, Head of the Conservation Unit of the same institution and research coordinator, and researchers and conservators Katerina Arias Ferrada and Carolina González Bravo.
At the meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee held in Mexico City in November 2017, unanimous approval was given to grant Puerto Rico 20,000 euros for the 2017/001 project entitled “Recovery plan for the General Archive of Puerto Rico. State of emergency post hurricanes Irma and Maria”, aimed at the recovery of the General Archive of Puerto Rico, following the disasters caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria. The support was made possible thanks to the UNESCO Memory of the World Jikji Prize that the Programme received in 2016.
Ecuador on the other hand has the project 2015/111 called “Emergency recovery plan for the provinces of Pichincha, Esmeraldas, Manabi, Guayas and Los Rios affected by the earthquake of 16 April 2016” On 16 April 2016 an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale was recorded in Ecuador, whose epicentre was located in the canton of Pedernales (Manabi), mainly affecting the provinces of the coastal region of the country. Among the many actions carried out to recover and rehabilitate the cultural heritage was the elaboration of a Register of the affected Historical Archives, which allowed the design and planning of a sustained set of short, medium and long term actions.
The 2009/209 supranational project entitled “Diagnosis and first aid for Haitian archives” Due to the emergency situation that Haiti experienced as a result of the earthquake of 12 January 2010, after the first priority was given to saving human lives, a project was proposed to channel aid to the National Archives of Haiti. The project was conceived to be carried out jointly by the General Archive of the Nation of the Dominican Republic and the National Archive of Cuba.
“Disasters are not natural, but are the result of omissions and lack of prevention and planning in the face of natural phenomena”.
Iberarchivos “Archives are the fruit of the past and must be preserved for future generations”.