Lasting legacy of World Heritage Sites
The UK’s economy, tourist industry and education systems will all benefit from better management and partnership between the country’s World Heritage Sites. That is the message being sent to a heritage experts meeting at New Lanark World Heritage Site (WHS) this week to share their experience in providing effective education and outreach around World Heritage Sites in the UK.
Education forms an intrinsic part of managing World Heritage Sites and is specifically referred to in the World Heritage Convention. Engaging young people in this work is essential and in 2009 the UK National Commission launched the ‘Making Sense of Our Sites’ programme. This initiative supports UK World Heritage Sites to communicate messages of World Heritage effectively to schools.
In the opening address of the UNESCO UK World Heritage Education Conference on Wednesday at New Lanark WHS, Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture and External Affairs will outline the unique opportunities for capitalising on the cultural assets we share. Ms Hyslop said:
Here in Scotland we are proud to have five wonderful sites that are deemed to be of universal significance. These sites are a vital part of this country’s proud history and can play a central role in creating a wealthier, smarter and greener Scotland. It is imperative that more people are educated about this fact and encouraged to develop a greater interest in our rich heritage. I would like to applaud UNESCO for their dedicated work around this matter and both the Scottish Government and I are fully supportive of the work of the UK National Commission and its Scotland Committee in helping address this problem.”
Professor Peter Stone from the UK National Commission for UNESCO said:
Engaging young people in the protection, conservation, and interpretation of World Heritage Sites is essential to inspire future custodians of our global shared heritage. World Heritage Education can help create a generation of young people who love where they live and have an understanding of the cultural and natural diversity of the UK.”
On behalf of the UK National Commission for UNESCO, New Lanark World Heritage Site will from 29th-30th September 2010 host the second of three conferences which will bring together representatives from UK World Heritage Sites. This is the first time such a conference is being held in Scotland. The conference will consider progress and development in World Heritage Education (WHE) over the past year and look towards bringing together examples of good practice for a forthcoming Guidance Document on World Heritage Education for UNESCO.
This conference is part of the Making Sense of Our Sites initiative which supports UK World Heritage Sites to communicate messages of World Heritage effectively to schools.
A major part of this programme is to use the UNESCO Associated Schools network in the UK to establish meaningful and sustainable relationships between World Heritage Sites and local schools to ensure that children and young people have more engagement with the internationally important heritage on their doorstep.
The conference will be followed by a one-day World Heritage Youth Summit on 1 October, sponsored by Historic Scotland, which will bring together 45 young people to explore what World Heritage means to young people in Scotland.
Written: 28/09/2010 , last modified: 28/09/2010
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