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East Asian World Heritage Professionals Identified Common Priority Actions for Conservation and Management
October 16-17, 2004, Beijing, China – “East Asian Consultation Meeting on the Implementation of the Regional Framework Action Plan for Asia and the Pacific”, organized by UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia with the support from the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China, Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, and Beijing Central Axis Protection Fund, was successfully concluded, featuring a series of fruitful discussions among the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee, administrative agencies of East Asian State Parties, Category 2 Centres in cultural and natural heritage, UNESCO Chairs and site managers.
The Asia and Pacific is the first region to adopt the exercise of Periodic Reporting, as an important monitoring mechanism of the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Having completed three cycles of periodic reporting in 2003, 2012, and 2023, State Parties have had opportunities to reflect on their implementation of the Convention and the state of conservation of their World Heritage properties. Based on the successes, challenges, and areas for improvement shown in the latest report, a Regional Framework Action Plan for 2023-2030 was developed, outlining strategic objectives structured around the “Five Cs” (Credibility, Conservation, Capacity-building, Communication, and Communities), identifying priority areas, and proposing concrete actions to strengthen the implementation of the Convention. Upon this background, the consultation meeting served as an arena for East Asian focal points and site managers to discuss ways to concretize the Regional Framework Action Plan into national and sub-regional heritage strategies.
To open Day 1 of the consultation meeting, Mr. Chu Jianhao, Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, Professor Shahbaz Khan, Director of UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia, and Mr. Xie Bing, Deputy Administrator of National Cultural Heritage Administration of China, gave welcome remarks on behalf of their respective agencies, reaffirming the commitment to regional cooperation on World Heritage conservation and management in East Asia.
Ms. Himalchuli Gurung, Chief of Asia and the Pacific Unit of World Heritage Centre, provided an overview of the Third Cycle Periodic Reporting and Regional Framework Action Plan for Asia and the Pacific (2023-2030). Representatives from national-level cultural heritage administrative bodies in China, Japan, Mongolia, and Republic of Korea shared the current status and each State Party’s future priorities in World Heritage. To wrap up Day 1, Dr. Jyoti Hosagrahar, Deputy Director of World Heritage Centre briefed the delegations of World Heritage policies on climate change.
On Day 2, the three World Heritage Advisory Bodies gave updates of their current work, in particular, expertise and resources available to State Parties and site administrators. Eugene Jo, World Heritage Leadership Programme Manager at ICCROM introduced the Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit 2.0 and Guidance and Toolkit for Heritage Impact Assessments (2022). Hatthaya Siriphatthanakun, on behalf of ICOMOS, discussed the Tentative List, newly updated upstream process, and the agency’s role in preliminary assessment. Clemens Küpper, Programme Officer of Nominations and Strategy at IUCN, introduced the regional study reports on East Asian properties and World Heritage Outlook reports. Six Category 2 Centres on World Heritage in the Asia-Pacific region (Dr. Li Kuanghan from WHITRAP Beijiing, Ms. Li Hong from WHITRAP Shanghai, Mr. Gu Wenhua from WHITRAP Suzhou, Ms. Haeree Shim from WHIPIC, Mr. Luo Lei from HIST, and Dr. Nehru Prabakaran from the Wildlife Institute of India) also provided updates of their centre’s past successful programmes and regional collaboration, as well as priority working areas in the near future.
As a vital part of the consultation meeting, officials and professionals from the Advisory Bodies, administration agencies of each State Party, Category 2 Centres, Chairs and site managers participated in in-depth small-group and plenary discussions in the afternoon of Day 2, facilitated by Dr. Duong Bich Hanh, Programme Specialist for Culture at UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia. With prior consultation, the five East Asian States Parties have indicated their priorities within the Regional Framework Action Plan (2023-2030), identifying two actions selected by four countries as their priorities and seven others selected by three countries. To facilitate the group discussion, the nine actions were grouped into four areas, (1) funding, legal framework for resource allocation, and benefit sharing; (2) national inventories and Tentative List; (3) education and capacity-building; (4) conservation, development, Heritage Impact Assessment, and climate change. The discussions were organized in a way that each State Party was well represented in each of these themes and topics.
As results of these discussion, delegations were able to form directions and agreed on some concrete actions in the following areas: (1) exploring sustainable tourism revenue and benefit sharing through collection of good practices and capacity building; (2) exchanging and collaborating on Tentative List revision with a view for transboundary nomination; (3) produce country-specific educational materials and best practices guidelines to overcome language barriers and reach diverse groups of audience within and beyond formal education curriculum; (4) carry out research, awareness raising and capacity building on Heritage Impact Assessment to be a stronger legal framework of HIA.
The East Asian Consultation Meeting served as a valuable platform for World Heritage focal points to have dialogues with colleagues across national and institutional boundaries and with organizations supporting the implementation of the 1972 Convention at regional and global levels. It not only highlighted each State Party’s commitment to effective implementation of the Convention, but also demonstrated the core value of international and regional collaboration in World Heritage conservation and management. It is hoped that the mutual understanding, trust, and insights shared in these two days will be transformed into more concrete joint strategies and programmes to protect our diverse cultural and natural heritage.
