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Global Heritage Fund and the World Bank Host the First Iraq Heritage Congress Dedicated to Saving Endangered World Heritage Sites

June 03, 2004

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GLOBAL HERITAGE FUND AND THE WORLD BANK HOST THE FIRST IRAQ HERITAGE CONGRESS DEDICATED TO SAVING ENDANGERED WORLD HERITAGE SITES

Palo Alto, CA (June 3rd, 2004) Global Heritage Fund (GHF) and the The World Bank will partner with Iraq’s Minister of Culture and State Board of Antiquities to conduct a 8-day workshop for thirty leading Iraqi site directors and conservators June 15-22nd in Petra, Jordan.

The mission of the Iraq Heritage Congress is to develop world-class master conservation plans over the coming year for protection and preservation of the priceless historical and cultural sites in Iraq, according to Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of the GHF and Christiaan Poortman, World Bank Vice President for Middle East and North Africa.

Event UNESCO, the Jordanian Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Oriental Institute at University of Chicago, Brown University, the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR) and the Petra National Trust also are participating in the Iraq Heritage Congress.

While security remains a primary concern in Iraq, this is a critical time for Iraqi officials and regional and international organizations to begin to set priorities and create the basis for conservation funding from governments, agencies, banks and private sector conservancies like Global Heritage Fund. Iraq possesses many of the mankind’s most ancient archaeological sites, but these wonders of the “cradle of civilization” are still in their infancy for research, tourism development and heritage management. Most site directors are without resources to protect these ancient treasures from looting, vandalism and destruction.

“Today we have the experience and understanding to reverse the devastation of these world-class ancient sites, create new opportunities for developing countries like Iraq to become financially stable through sustainable tourism, and keep these important treasures from humankind’s past in our future,” said Morgan. “At current rates of destruction, there is at least one world heritage-class site lost each year in the Middle East, and we can’t afford to lose one more.”

Thirty leading Iraqi site directors and archaeological conservators will participate in an intense program of site management and planning workshops led by international experts in funding sources, technology and site management and planning. Participants from the Iraq Antiquities Department’s goal is to improve their own professional skills and to enhance their ability to acquire funding and expertise from international donor agencies.

Sites represented by Iraqi conservation leaders who will be attending the Iraq Heritage Congress in Petra include: Nineveh, Nimrud, Hatra, Ashur, Babylon, Samarra, Ukhaidhir, Ur, Aqar Quf, Ctesiphon, Tell Harmal and National Site Museums.

The primary emphasis of the workshops will be to complete drafts for site management plans for each participating Iraqi Heritage site. These plans will:

  * provide a framework to guide conservation of archaeological and cultural heritage sites in contexts to their urban and natural surroundings;
  * identify potential economic opportunities for sustainable tourism and private enterprise to support for long-term conservation;
  * form the basis for legislation and designation of protected national parks, monuments or preserves;
  * provide guidance in conservation work and archaeological research and exploration.

Global Heritage Fund is working with Iraq’s Minister of Culture and State Board of Antiquities to develop state-of-the-art, comprehensive site management plans for Iraq’s most endangered world heritage sites. GHF hopes to accelerate funding for protection and preservation of these ancient treasures by helping directly in the development of world-class site management plans based on the Burra Charter developed by the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

About Global Heritage Fund
Global Heritage Fund is the leading international conservancy preserving endangered world heritage sites in developing countries. The conservancy’s goal is to enable successful, long-term preservation of humankind’s most important archaeological sites and ancient townscapes, creating new opportunities for economic growth. Global Heritage Fund is a registered non-profit international conservancy based in Palo Alto, California.

The role of the Global Heritage Fund is to develop comprehensive Master Conservation Plans, provide early matching grants and training, build local institutions and promote sustainable tourism development to further permanent protection for global cultural treasures. To view GHF’s Master Conservation Planning Guidelines, see:

GHF Master Conservation Planning Guidelines
http://ghn.globalheritagefund.org/uploads/library/doc_413.pdf

At the very heart of GHF’s conservation efforts are the organization’s Leaders in Conservation, the Advisory Board, and Trustees for Global Heritage, a distinguished network of philanthropists and foundations committed to preserving and protecting these one-of-a-kind archaeological sites and ancient buildings.

About The World Bank
The World Bank Group’s mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world. It is a development Bank that provides loans, policy advice, technical assistance and knowledge sharing services to low and middle income countries to reduce poverty. The Bank promotes growth to create jobs and to empower poor people to take advantage of these opportunities.

The Bank’s lending and advisory services continued to grow, focusing on work at the country level and reflecting the Bank’s focus on its corporate and global public goods priorities. It provided debt relief to some of the world’s poorest nations and extended this relief to countries emerging from conflict. The Bank’s knowledge sharing activities continued to expand, leading to participatory activities with governments, nongovernmental organizations, private sector representatives, and donor government colleagues.