Juan Andrés Perelló Rodriguez is the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Spain to the UNESCO since 2018. As such, he will be charged with the responsiblity of defending the Talayotic Menorca candidacy in front of the World Heritage Commitee taking place the summer of 2022 in Kazan (Russia). That will be the key moment when it is decided if Menorca will enter and be part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. Perelló visited Talayotic Menorca for the first time from May 26th to 28th.
What was the objective of this visit?
The objective was to reconcile the material in the file, the narrative put down on paper, with reality. When defending a candiday, no matter how well you manage the facts, you also need to have a feel for the place and live it. Our starting off point is a candidacy that has been very well worked, one that is very solid. That said, the evaluating body can be unpredictable. Spain is in the top tier of World Heritage and the commitee has a high bar for us. I am, however, hopeful that the tremendous work done on this candidacy will bear its fruits.
How do you value the candidacy after observing the sites and the most outstanding associated landscapes?
One can find prehistoric remains in many parts of the Earth, but this place has singularitues that perfectly uphold the exceptional and universal character that UNESCO demands. Not even the surrounding and nearby islands prehistoric findings have such sigular and diferentiating attributes as we find in Menorca.The talayots, for example, are so different to Mallorca’s. So, those two very important points are there. Also, in the current Wold Heritage List, prehistoric cultures in general are underrepresented, so Talayotic Menorca can help to heal that gap.
You have said that Spain is in the top tier of World Heritage, being one of the top three countries in the world with the most inscribed properties. How can this fact affect the candidacy?
We are the third country on the list with the most inscribed properties, competing with China and Italy, one for its territorial size and the other for its history. That makes it so that the bar is higher for us, but also helps us stand out from the point of view of experience. A county with a lot of heritage is because it has a lot to show and knows how to take advantage from it. We have very competitive heritage. We have full faith in our teams and the personnel working on the candidacy.
How has colaboration between the Spanish Permanent Delegation to UNESCO and the candidacy been?
It has been a very close colaboration. The first contacts were through our teams and the Spanish Ministry of Culture, especially the Heritage department. Both the General director, the deputy director and the experts have been very implicated. At the UNESCO, with the relationship we have with the Heritage Center, this year we are members of the Heritage Commitee with a seat and a vote. Therefore, we have had greater access to see the file and understand its demands.
The next big step will be the visit by the ICOMOS mission in October to evaluate the candidacy on the ground. Now that you have seen it first hand, how do you see the future of the candidacy?
We have a year before we go to Kazan to present our defense. At that moment, we will no longer be members of the Heritage Commitee as a state, but we have a good relationship with the rest. Some members will change but we are already establishing a relationship with the ones we know will change; we will have talks with the Heritage Center and, at the end, we will defend our candidacy with passion because we have the basis for it.
What could it mean for Menorca to recieve this recognition?
Menorca is famous for the respect it has for its territory, its efforts in sustainability, but this will mean a new spot light. It is not the same for Menorca to be known by many people than for Menorca to have the World Heritage spot light shinning on the island. There is a lot of tourism fetishism surrounding heritage, lots of people travel with this motivation. It would mean a new open door for international recognition. On top of that, there is an implicit collaboration with UNESCO’s peace mission, because with every World Heritage Site that is declared, it means that we are growing the international community for its conservation, no longer is it a local or individual responsability, but an international one. The best way of conserving heritage is for there to be no wars, thus, indirectly collaborating with UNESCO’s mission of peace builing.