The Cabrera Pinto will host, on December 3 and 4, a conference on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the recognition of Unesco and in which Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Rafael Lobeto, Marisa Tejedor and Cipriano Marin Cabrera, among others, will participate.
The Instituto de Canarias Cabrera Pinto will host the Symposium “City of La Laguna World Heritage, 25 years later”, a conference of analysis promoted by the City Council and with which not only commemorates the 25th anniversary of this important international recognition, but also, 30 years since the approval of what is known as the Declaration of La Laguna, which was the basis for the approval of the “Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations towards Future Generations” of Unesco and which has been fundamental in the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals and the protection of nature.
“For two days, December 3 and 4, intellectuals, disseminators and specialists in different fields will meet again in the city of Tenerife to address the protection of our cultural and natural legacy, and the challenges and opportunities that open up for the future of this city with more than half a century of history, which wants to remain a center of coexistence, study, promotion and defense of international values that today we must continue to claim,” says the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez.
In addition, as explained by the councilman of Cultural Heritage, Adolfo Cordobés, “this symposium recovers the activity launched by La Laguna in 2000, when a conference on Human Rights was organized, coinciding with the first anniversary of the inclusion of La Laguna in the list of World Heritage of Unesco”.
“And we do it”, he points out, ‘with an extensive program of lectures and the participation of such outstanding figures as Federico Mayor Zaragoza, who already participated in the 2000 conference; Rafael Lobeto, from the Cousteau Foundation, a great promoter of this Declaration, as well as Marisa Tejedor, and who will be joined by Miguel Clüsener-Godt or Cipriano Marín Cabrera, among many others’.
With this new initiative, “we will not only analyze the impact that the designation of La Laguna as a World Heritage City has had on the development of the municipality, but also that of other protected areas in our environment, such as the Anaga Rural Park, declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. In addition, this symposium aims to make a new contribution to the international debate on the need to promote an ethic of responsibility and awareness of the impact of our actions on future living conditions, through an integral vision that brings together tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the environment, identity and peace,” added Cordobés.
The program thus reaffirms the process of reflection that La Laguna is developing on the work done in this quarter of a century and the new objectives that must be set in order to continue advancing in the conservation of its heritage and in a sustainable urban development in all its meanings, that is, social, economic and environmental, with the responsibility of being the only historical complex of the Canary Islands declared World Heritage and its role as a historical nexus between continents.
In addition, it will allow to deepen the protection of natural assets, such as the Anaga Rural Park, taking as a starting point the “Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations Towards Future Generations” of Unesco and, especially, its article 5 (Environmental Protection), which addresses issues such as that “present generations must preserve for future generations the natural resources necessary for the sustenance and development of human life” and that “before undertaking major projects, present generations must take into account their possible consequences for future generations”.
Program
The Mayor of La Laguna will inaugurate this symposium “City of La Laguna World Heritage, 25 years later” at 10:30 am on December 3, which will be presented by the former rector of the University of La Laguna (ULL) and current president of the Scientific Council of the Spanish Committee of the Man and Biosphere Program (MaB) of UNESCO, Marisa Tejedor.
The first speech of the day will be given by the president of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and former director general of UNESCO, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, entitled “25 years later”, and will be followed by the presentation “Declaration of the human rights of future generations (La Laguna, 1994)”, by Marisa Tejedor.
The program will continue with the Secretary General of the Philipp Cousteau Foundation, Rafael Lobeto Lobo, and the presentation entitled “Jacques Cousteau: Naturalist and Humanist”, followed by the former Director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO, Miguel Clüsener-Godt, who will speak about the “World Network of Biosphere Reserves: More than conservation, a figure of peace”.
Cipriano Marín Cabrera, an expert on islands and sustainable development and a leading member of ICOMOS Spain and the Spanish World Heritage Commission of UNESCO, will give a talk on “Legacy and future of World Heritage: Natural, mixed and cultural landscapes”. And in the afternoon, at 5:00 p.m., the head of Parks and Gardens of La Laguna, Francisco Salomone Suárez, and the professor of Botany of the ULL, Antonio García Gallo, will give the lecture “La Laguna de las alamedas”.
On December 4, at 10:00 a.m., Juan Manuel Palerm Salazar, professor of Architectural Projects at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, will open the last day with “The RE (invention/evolution) of the landscape of architecture. Heritage as a resource and strategic reference”. And José Luis Rivero Ceballos, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of La Laguna, will close the lectures with “Culture, nature and local development”.
Calendar of events for the 25th anniversary
This symposium is part of the program of activities of the Big Week with which La Laguna commemorates the 25th anniversary of its designation as a World Heritage City by Unesco. The entire calendar of events is available on the web site 25aniversario.aytolalaguna.es.