UNESCO Inscribes Panama's Quincha Houses on Urgent Safeguarding List

On Tuesday, UNESCO inscribed the construction techniques of Panama's 'quincha' houses on its List of Urgent Safeguarding, a decision that recognizes the climatic value of this ancestral architecture but alerts to its imminent disappearance due to the scarcity of raw materials. This is the first time Panama has directly inscribed an element in the risk category, a move that seeks to activate funds and technical advice to rescue vernacular architecture threatened by industrialization and demographic changes. The migration of the young population to Panama City and the introduction of a monetary economy in rural areas have transformed the 'convite' voluntary system into paid labor, breaking the cycle of neighborhood cooperation. By entering the Urgent Safeguarding List, Panama commits to executing a four-year plan focused on the provinces of Los Santos, Herrera, Veraguas, and Coclé. Traditionally, these houses are not built with money, but with solidarity. The community gathers in a festive event to tread the mud and raise the walls collectively, under a system of reciprocity where one helps a neighbor today to receive help tomorrow. The technique consists of building a wooden and 'bitter cane' frame that is later filled with a mixture of mud, dry straw, and water. UNESCO protects this inscription by safeguarding the social fabric that makes it possible: the 'junta de embarre'. The project includes the creation of nurseries for the necessary wood, inventories of living practitioners, and educational programs to revalue the technique among the youth. According to the evaluated document, the tradition faces a 'perfect storm' composed of the scarcity of natural raw materials due to climate change and the use of land for intensive livestock farming, added to the loss of oral transmission between generations. This community work model is in decline. This design offers high thermal resistance, keeping the interior cool against the extreme temperatures of Panama's 'Dry Arch', in addition to having anti-seismic properties due to the flexibility of its materials. 'That is why we make a pact today—with the Assembly, embassies, NGOs, and all those present—so that the laws and measures adopted guarantee the protection of the practitioners and their knowledge,' she added. The international body validated the Panamanian file, which warns of the 'critical viability' of this technique. 'This is our first manifestation included in urgent safeguarding, which implies a triple effort,' affirmed Panama's representative in the plenary, Emma Gómez, during the 20th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage held in New Delhi. Quincha is an ancestral construction system adapted to the dry tropics.