Most discussion of Yemen revolves around politics and security, while heritage conservation is being largely ignored. This situation has led directly to alarm over the condition of two World Heritage sites, Zabid and Old Sana’a, over the loss of cultural effects through theft and looting, and over serious deterioration of built environments and landscapes because of neglect or ineffectual policy enforcement. Such circumstances threaten built heritage and urban landscapes, which are major outputs of Yemeni cultural production, but Yemeni heritage has yet to figure prominently on the agenda of international ‘friends’ supporting the nation during its political transition. Some government and independent agencies have recently led successful efforts to conserve built heritage in the country, as well as select urban landscapes. Many of these sites are in serious need of preservation and restoration, and they offer possible hope for investment and economic stimulus as tourist destinations, centers of artisanal craft manufacturing, or vocational and specialist training centers in the future. Yet, they generally attract little outside interest because of the assumption that conservation work is either not possible now due to a lack of security or is not worth the investment for the same reason. This paper challenges that assumption by discussing recent attempts to preserve cultural landscapes and urban heritage in Yemen through policy-led intervention, private initiative, and individual effort. It examines five important historic and cultural sites to consider conservation efforts that have been unsuccessful, partly or mostly successful, and one that is currently in progress: specifically, the sites of Jibla, Zabid, Thula, Shibam/Kawkaban, and the restoration of the National Museum watchtower in Sana’a. Interviews with the experts who worked on these projects, as well as government officials will be the primary methodology. The underlying guiding question of the research is whether current political and security concerns prevent proper conservation, or whether such conservation can be largely successful and sustainable even in the current political and security environment. The site currently undergoing restoration presents a unique opportunity to discuss this question and to look at influencing factors as work unfolds. The paper will analyze which methods and factors have led to successful conservation and restoration efforts, with an aim of devising criteria for successful completion and sustaining of such projects.

In Zabīd, a project for safeguarding the manuscripts in private libraries (PZ) was set up in 2001 by the CEFAS under my scientific direction. Since 2011, actions conducted within the frame of the PZ are very much diminished, but other manuscript-related activities in the city, while they have decreased, have not ceased. In the first place, the awareness of their cultural heritage (and in particular manuscripts) among local people and PZ staff, and their determination to keep it in the locality, explain this: it was thus before the PZ, was so at the inception of the PZ, and is so today. Secondly, the PZ aimed to train a team to work to international standards in cataloguing, digitization (especially watermarked papers) and basic conservation actions in order to insure that autonomous safeguarding actions could continue in Zabīd and its region after the PZ closed. Very recently material was dispatched from France to Zabīd, where the trained team had started to work on basic conservation. In the light of this experience, this paper aims to examine the various types of action which can be collaboratively conducted in support of autonomous local actions for safeguarding the Cultural heritage (especially manuscripts) in Yemen.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that theatrical productions require funding. In a country like Yemen, where salaries and the cost of living are low, the amounts required are paltry in comparison to those necessary for a show on Broadway or in a European theater: a play can be staged for a grand total of around three thousand dollars, including compensation for the cast and crew for several weeks of rehearsal; costumes; set design, and so forth. Yet for many Yemeni directors and acting troupes even this relatively small sum is an increasingly difficult one to amass. The current financial model for Yemeni theater is dysfunctional. Admission to performances is free, so there is no revenue from ticket sales, and opportunities for advertising, corporate sponsorship, and support from the private sector lie fallow. Theatrical activity is thus entirely, unhealthily dependent upon grants from the Yemeni government or from foreign embassies or NGOs. This system limped along through the 1990s and early 2000s, with the Yemeni Ministry of Culture (MoC) usually earmarking a modest but consistent subset of funds for the performing arts. However, in the wake of the Arab Spring and the power-sharing agreements that characterized Yemen’s transition, newly-empowered Salafist elements within the MoC have sought to divert funds away from artistic pursuits assumed to be secular in nature, and rather towards cultural activities deemed properly Islamic. This change has verged on the disastrous for Yemeni theater practitioners, many of whom now look with varying degrees of desperation to the international diplomatic and NGO communities to fill the financial vacuum. This is not entirely new: over the course of the past decade, the US and Dutch embassies, the German and French Cultural Centers, and other such organizations have all sponsored theatrical productions in Yemen, some of which have truly been stellar, pioneering events in the history of Yemeni theater. Yet the current climate poses a real danger to independent, authentic cultural and artistic production: cookie-cutter agitprop plays about hot-button issues like child marriage, religious extremism, and terrorism now abound, as directors and playwrights tailor their work to attract foreign sponsors. This presentation will analyze this phenomenon and suggest means to ameliorate its negative effects. Research will include attendance at performances in Yemen and interviews with practitioners, officials at the Ministry of Culture, and representatives of foreign organizations which provide performance funding.

Those who work in nature conservation in different territories in Yemen see a clear gap between older, more conservative generations, who were taught to live in harmony with nature and use resources sustainably, and younger generations, who have different concerns because of dramatic changes to their lifestyles. The negative impact of the latter is continuously increasing, given the high percentage of youth in the population. Yet there are creative ways to promote awareness of the need to conserve wildlife and natural resources, especially by drawing connections between conservation principles and certain existing customs and traditions within Yemeni culture. This paper examines the ways in which elements of Yemeni culture can be invoked to involve a wide spectrum of stakeholders in conservation efforts. Particular focus will be given to a case study, the work of the Foundation for Endangered Wildlife (FEW). Over its four-year existence, FEW has organized innovative workshops which address local communities using established traditions and stories from Yemeni culture, including religious texts. It has also worked to sustain traditional organic agriculture through various small-scale agricultural projects, which demonstrate that conservation is a better way of production than limited access to resources. FEW has also worked to resurrect old traditional conservation practices from the local culture, like ‘marqum’ (Yemeni Ar. for a kind of social forestry), tree-looping methods, designated hunting periods, and traditional water harvesting and usage. As development means improvement and reorientation, FEW’s fourth and most positive contribution is SylviCulture, i.e. a shift from gathering to cultivation and rehabilitation in both private land and ‘mashae’ (Yemeni Ar. for common use land). All these have proved to be very potent methods in bridging the generation gap, building trust, and involving local communities in conservation activities; they are potentially replicable models for using cultural means for environmental ends.