Awareness-raising

Trafficking thrives on indifference. Many buyers do not know that an "old and cheap" object may come from looting. Many residents do not see the point of protecting a site that brings them nothing. Many young people know nothing of their heritage.

Awareness-raising responds to these findings through information, emotion and action. It provides keys to understanding, shows the consequences and proposes simple actions: ask for the provenance, report, visit, pass on.

OIMAP's campaigns rest on three messages. The first: "Ask where the work comes from." Provenance is the best protection against trafficking. The second: "An object taken out of its site loses its history." The third: "Heritage belongs to everyone." Everyone can help to preserve it.

These messages are adapted to audiences: spots for social media, posters in airports, teaching kits for schools, guides for collectors, appearances in the media.

Awareness-raising succeeds only with relays: teachers, guides, journalists, associations, museums, cultural influencers. OIMAP trains them, supplies them with content, showcases their initiatives and opens up a network of professionals to them.

Member States are also actors: they build protection messages into school curricula, guide training and tourism campaigns. National agreements frame these partnerships.

Awareness-raising aims not only to inform but to create attachment. Workshops, meetings with craftspeople, visits to restoration sites and village festivals around a site make heritage a living asset that people want to defend.

The most successful projects link protection with pride and local development. They produce a lasting effect: residents who become the guardians of their history.