Rising number of nominations from various countries across the world seeking the world heritage status from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for different sites — many of which at times are devoid of any outstanding value is a cause for concern. The director of the Division for Heritage and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre Paris, Mechtild Rossler said this while speaking at the fifth annual coordination meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage-related Category 2 Institutes and Centres at the UNESCO Category 2 Centre on Natural World Heritage Management and Training here at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) on Tuesday.
Elaborating on aspects required for the tag of UNESCO world heritage status, Rossler said that the organisation seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of such cultural and natural heritage around the world which is considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. Though such a site must possess outstanding universal value, there is a proclivity among nations to secure maximum number of sites for nomination in order to secure a position with world heritage status. As the countries compete for the UNESCO world heritage status tag for their sites, the accordance of this tag should be not more than one site a year for each nation, she opined. Explaining how the category 2 institutes and centres contribute to UNESCO’s work in the field of culture and heritage, she said that these institutes and centres extend the reach and effectiveness of UNESCO’s programmes and activities in the field of culture. They also serve as international or regional centres and poles of expertise and excellence, provide services and technical assistance like policy advice, research, documentation and capacity-building to member states, cooperation partners and UNESCO’s network of field offices. These bodies act as resource hubs to foster regional and international collaboration, networking and synergies, she added.
Speaking on the occasion, the director of WII and UNESCO C2C for World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia and the Pacific Region, Vinod Mathur averred that work is being undertaken to bolster implementation of World Heritage Convention in Asia and the Pacific Region through capacity building of professionals and institutions associated with aspects of world heritage sites including protection, conservation and management. This is being facilitated through training, research, dissemination of information and network building, he added.
Technical sessions held later in the day focused on review of previous agenda and action taken from C2C coordination meetings, C2C report on progress and activities and road map for enhancing collaborations and cooperation among C2Cs.
The director general of Heritage Protection, Spain, Elisa de Cabo de la Vega and cultural heritage expert from the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kamal Bittar along with representatives of UNESCO and other organisations were also present on the occasion.