Introduction

Cultural heritage management (CHM)1 is a term used most commonly amongst heritage professionals who are responsible for the care of such assets as heritage places, sites, artefacts, cultural property, and other tangible heritage items in a society. For the purposes of this book, the process of undertaking activities to care for such heritage items will be termed ‘cultural heritage management’ and the word ‘resource’ will pertain to cultural heritage assets in general. Caring for cultural heritage assets is important, because our society has a responsibility towards present and future generations to manage such heritage assets to the best of our ability. CHM has also become increasingly intertwined with other principal objectives of sustainable development, an ecological framework that considers such precious resources as important cultural capital.