More than a decade ago UNESCO described the Asia-Pacific region as, “the greatest lacunae in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention”.
Judging from this story printed by the Turkish newspaper - Hurriyet Daily News - the region is well on its way to charting a new path in World Heritage. Thanks in large part to the UNESCO/World Heritage Centre Global Strategy.
The initiative which was ratified in 1994 sought to bring balance to the World Heritage List by identifying and correcting gaps on the list. To attain balance, the World Heritage Committee applied a number of mechanisms including the establishment of an “order of priorities” list to guide its annual review of sites for inscription. Priority nominations are accepted from the Caribbean and the Pacific – home to over fifty (50) percent of the total number of Small Island Developing States.
Impact of the Global Strategy
Post Global Strategy, an increasing number of Small Islands of the Pacific have become States Parties to the World Heritage Convention. Prior to the initiative, Fiji is the only SIDS that had ratified the Convention in the Pacific with the exception of the developed nations of Australia and New Zealand. In 2003, the World Heritage Committee launched “World Heritage Pacific 2009”, intended to guide Small Islands of the Pacific to conserve and safeguard their heritage. Additionally, as one of the most under-represented regions on the World Heritage List, the programme is intended to boost ratification activity throughout the islands.
Message in the numbers?
UNESCO has stated that membership of the Convention is, “now very high, but implementation levels are low”. However, UNESCO has noted that there has been considerable progress with regard to the submission of Tentative Lists and currently the work of years of preparation starts to show with the submission of several nominations (five submissions in 2009, including Hawaii). As a result of the success levels, a Pacific World Heritage Fund has been recommended, and the formulation of a draft Medium-Term Action Plan (2012-2015) to succeed the Pacific 2009 programme.
SIDS | SIDS in Africa | SIDS in Asia/Pacific | SIDS in the Caribbean | Total |
Ratifications 2005 | 4 | 13 | 12 | 29 |
Ratifications 2009 | 5 | 14 | 12 | 31 |
SIDS | SIDS in Africa | SIDS in Asia/Pacific | SIDS in the Caribbean | Total |
Tentative List 2005 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
Tentative List 2009 | 5 | 10 | 9 | 24 |
SIDS | SIDS in Africa | SIDS in Asia/Pacific | SIDS in the Caribbean | Total |
Inscriptions 2005 | 2 | 2 (incl. Bahrain) | 12 | 16 |
Inscriptions 2009 | 4 | 4 (excl. N. Caledonia) | 13 | 21 |
Charts adapted from UNESCO Progress Report (2009) of the World Heritage Programme for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) showing Ratifications, Tentative Lists and Inscriptions since the launch of the programme in 2005.
Island Heritage-scape is watching this one very carefully. The extent to which the islands of the Pacific are able to move from tentative listing to actual inscription on the WHL, may become something of a model to SIDS across the globe.
In subsequent postings we will look at the impact of the Global Strategy in the AIMS and Caribbean regions.
In subsequent postings we will look at the impact of the Global Strategy in the AIMS and Caribbean regions.
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