Handover Ceremony for the Project for the Improvement of Seismic Isolation Equipment for Museums in the Province of Manabí: Supporting the prevention of damage to cultural properties in earthquake-prone Ecuador
2024.04.26
On 16 April, the ceremony for the handover of seismic isolation equipment for museums was held in Manta, Manabí Province, Republic of Ecuador, which was developed under the “Project for the Improvement of Seismic Isolation Equipment for Museums in the Province of Manabi.”
Ceremony（From left to right: Chief Representative of JICA Ecuador Miura, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ecuador Morishita, President Noboa, Minister of Cultural Heritage Muñoz, Director of the Ciudad Alfaro Corporation Nuclear Museum Ureta）
President Noboa (back right) listening to an explanation of the exhibits at the Manta National Museum and Cultural Center
The ceremony was attended by government and project officials from both Ecuador and Japan. Attendees from the Ecuadorian side included President Daniel Noboa, Minister of Cultural Heritage Romina Muñoz Procel, and Mayor of Manta Marciana Valdivieso, while those from the Japanese side included Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ecuador Morishita Keiichiro and Chief Representative of JICA Ecuador Miura Junichi.
Ecuador has many diverse and valuable cultural heritage sites that tell of its ancient Andean history, and in recent years the Ecuadorian government has reaffirmed the importance of the cultural preservation of these sites, promoting not only the preservation but also an understanding of cultural heritage. On the other hand, Ecuador is an earthquake-prone country located along the circum-Pacific seismic belt, and a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the Province of Manabí in April 2016 caused extensive damage to a wide area, including two national museums in Manabí Province. Knowledge regarding the appropriate response to and prevention of earthquake damage to cultural properties in the country is limited, and addressing this limitation has thus become an important issue.
The general cultural grant-aid “Project for the Improvement of Seismic Isolation Equipment for Museums in the Province of Manabi” aims to install seismic isolation equipment for the display and conservation of cultural heritage at the Manta National Museum and Cultural Centre (Manta, Manabí Province) and the Archaeological Museum of Hojas Jaboncillo (Portoviejo, Manabí Province), which were severely damaged by the 2016 earthquake. The project will provide safer cultural facilities for the public by using Japanese disaster prevention technology to build seismically isolated display cases and mobile shelves, which is expected to help the country to build back better and improve the vulnerability of cultural heritage to disasters.
Hojas Jaboncillo Archaeological Museum with attendants of the ceremony
Visit to the Hojas Jaboncillo Archaeological Museum
At the ceremony, President Noboa stated his expectation that the installation of Ecuador's first seismically isolated exhibition equipment is an important milestone for the country and will contribute not only to the protection of cultural properties, but also to the understanding of history by younger generations. He also expressed his gratitude to the Japanese government for its support in realizing the goals of the project.
Japan has made “environmental conservation and disaster preparedness” one of the priority areas of its aid policy for Ecuador, and JICA is also providing technical cooperation in parallel with this project, through such initiatives as the “Strengthening and Dissemination of Building Disaster Resilient Cities” and the “Project on Capacity Building for Risk Reduction of Slope Disasters at Technical and Territorial Level.” The agency will continue to promote cooperation in the field of disaster preparedness in the country.
Sns share!
scroll