What is the objective and aim of Shibam Urban Development project?
The basic philosophy of the project is very simple. It aims at empowering communities to preserve their heritage and reap the benefits of living in a heritage site. Heritage sites are national assets, but the local communities hardly ever see the rewards of living in such a site. Often they are overburdened with increased costs of marinating their housing stock, being denied development rights, and are restricted in the way they can use their property. The project has been working with national and local government to re-channel to the local communities some of the benefits of being in a world heritage site. Can you please briefly outline the project, when and how it all begun? The project began in 2000. It is now in its third phase expected to last till 2010. In principle the project works on four main fields of related development measures. Urban heritage management is of course a main area of intervention. There, we cooperate with the Social Fund for Development of Yemen to provide
