The preservation of cultural heritage has become an increasingly urgent priority in a world (0) WHERE rapid modernisation threatens to erase centuries of tradition. Ancient monuments crumble, languages fall 1 of use, and customs that were once central to community life are gradually forgotten. So great is the scale of 2 is being lost that some scholars have drawn parallels with ecological extinction. 3 passionate many campaigners are about safeguarding the past, they face formidable obstacles — not least the difficulty of persuading governments to allocate scarce resources to preservation rather 4 development. Were it not 5 the efforts of organisations such as UNESCO, many of the world’s most treasured sites would already have been destroyed. It is often 6 when something has been irrevocably lost that its true value becomes apparent — a pattern that has repeated itself throughout history. 7 that as it may, there are encouraging signs that attitudes are beginning to shift. The question now is not so much whether cultural heritage should be preserved 8 how best to balance the demands of the past with those of the future.