Best Practices in Built Heritage Preservation

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia possesses various sites of great historical and cultural importance. The preservation and valorisation of such heritage requires great expertise and know-how in order to balance interests, so as to benefit both the State and local populations.

In this regard, the World Bank contracted GAIA-heritage to submit a Research Report providing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a set of best regional and international practices in ways to finance built heritage preservation. Nevertheless, matters of heritage are context-specific and international examples hardly turnkey solutions; therefore, the report also provides concrete recommendations on possible applications within the Kingdom.

The results of this work were presented on the occasion of the Second National Built Heritage Forum, in 2012. The event, launched by the Saudi Commission of Tourism and Antiquities, took place in both Al-Hasa and Dammam, was chaired by HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman.