The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The conference was organized in response to the increasing destruction of the archaeological record by industrialization, urbanization, and illegal transportation and sale of artifacts. Various aspects of a system for establishing and maintaining effective rescue archaeological systems were discussed in symposia and workshops. The members of the conference endorsed a number of recommendations addressed to archaeologists, museums, individual governments, and the Organization of American States in order to reduce the damage being done to the cultural resources of the Western Hemisphere.