CHiFA aims to align the conservation and preservation fields with sustainable development through heritage-led regeneration that creates opportunities for innovative and impactful investments. Our goals are grounded in the revitalization of disinvested historic areas through local economic empowerment: to build collaborative networks, teach skills, revive craft traditions, create meaningful jobs, and stimulate economic growth.

Our current projects have delivered these positive intended impacts and others that we have learned more about in the process. We hope these projects will model our wider vision of how heritage-led regeneration can contribute to achieving sustainable development goals locally. We look forward to sharing more insights from our current projects. Below, we have highlighted a couple observations from our recent trips to Tunis and Zanzibar.

Adaptive reuse of historic buildings creates meaningful environmental and social benefits. It contributes to environmental conservation by reviving traditional energy-saving techniques and systems that reduce environmental impact created by sending demolition materials to landfills. Construction waste accounts for 37% of landfill waste today. To date, there are few reliable measures for the respective costs of saving existing buildings as opposed to building new structures. The AIA released a Guide to Building Reuse for Climate Action in April 2024 to aid in determining the financial and natural benefits. Our projects will contribute to the growing knowledge and movement towards the global mandate for unified climate action. 

CHiFA’s projects in the Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and in the Old Town of Rhodes, Greece, create new uses for existing buildings that capture and interpret the layered histories that promote social memory. In both retaining the structures and retelling the communities’ stories, we help strengthen the cultural bonds that have held them together for millennia. Understanding one’s own history is a critical part of the cultural education process, so the interpretation of these local histories will create a more connected, diverse visitor experience and attract a more knowledgeable, respectful form of tourism.

Promoting women’s equity has emerged as a key issue in heritage environments across much of the developing world where, in addition to other forms of discrimination, women are often excluded from public spaces and have no place to congregate – whether to work, go after school or with children.

Femmedina, a collaborative gender-focused project with the City of Tunis researched participatory planning to support women by rehabilitating and activating public spaces in the city center for women's participation. The design of our project in Tunis will include designated green spaces that will provide a common area for women’s use and contribute to an improved climate and air quality in a congested urban landscape.

In Zanzibar, the reuse of the historic Majestic Cinema as a cultural hub will provide working space for women and a headquarters for the group Reclaim Women's Space, together with two locally-based performing arts groups.

CHiFA is deeply grateful to the J.M. Kaplan Fund for their generous grant that will enable us to communicate and promote the linkages between conservation of cultural heritage and broader sustainable development goals to enhance life on Earth. In 2024, CHiFA will launch an online forum for sharing more insights, as the field of heritage conservation adopts dynamic, holistic local initiatives to address social and humanitarian goals.

Until then, visit our updated website to learn more about our current projects.

Bonnie Burnham

President

Cultural Heritage Finance Alliance

bburnham@heritagefinance.org