Central African Countries Urge UNESCO to Increase Representation of African Heritage Globally

UNESCO has named places around the globe World Heritage Sites when they are considered to be of significant cultural, historical, scientific, or other value since 1972. Monuments, groups of structures, and places make up cultural heritage, while natural heritage is comprised of physical and biological formations.

Ministers and experts in charge of world heritage from eight Central African nations have asked UNESCO and its partners, including the African World Heritage Fund, to assist them in implementing specific measures to strengthen their institutional capacity and professional expertise in the field of world heritage in order to more effectively identify potential sites for inscription on the World Heritage List and subsequently increase Africa's representation there.

The delegates met at the government of Cameroon's invitation in the nation's capital Yaoundé. Their discussion, according to UNESCO, resulted in the final resolution, called the Yaoundé Call to Action, and was signed by delegates from Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Sao Tomé and Principe.

"The Yaoundé Appeal is a consecration of culture in the Central African sub-region, in its richness, density, diversity and vitality, which is the basis of African cultural influence," Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Mkpatt, Cameroonian minister of arts and culture, was quoted as saying.

The adopted resolution emphasizes the significance of safeguarding, maintaining, managing, and promoting African World Heritage sites as well as their role in the socioeconomic advancement and welfare of regional populations.

For instance, the delegates stressed the importance of World Heritage in preserving biodiversity and managing Central African forest ecosystems sustainably to sequester carbon to lessen the effects of climate change.

It also argues that it is imperative to take advantage of the potential presented by the digital transition and new technologies to promote African World Heritage, particularly by involving young people.

Among other things, the resolution praised the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Development MONDIACULT 2022, which was held in Mexico in late September.

Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of World Heritage, said that the world must "act together" to protect Africa's "exceptional heritage from the dangers that threaten it," and the Yaoundé Call to Action is set to empower these nations to accomplish this goal.

Prior to Wednesday's summit, two meetings of experts, such as the sixth Pan-African Forum of Young World Heritage Professionals in the Dja Faunal Reserve, a World Heritage Site, took place earlier this month.

Experts discussed the difficulties facing African World Heritage, including the procedures for adding new sites to the List of World Heritage in Danger, the removal of properties from the list, and the role of young people and digital technology in managing sites in the face of numerous threats like armed conflict, climate risks, and the incorporation of development projects.

Notably, on November 17 and 18, Delphi in Greece will host a global celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which laid the foundation for the organization's World Heritage List.