Jamaica to Host Region’s First World Heritage Workshop

The Ministry of Youth and Culture will host the Caribbean’s first workshop on World Heritage Education on December 7 and 8.

The two-day event will be held at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston beginning at 9:00 a.m. each day.

This workshop comes against the background of the Blue and John Crow Mountains being inscribed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Prestigious World Heritage List, and becoming the first mixed (cultural and natural) site for the Caribbean subregion.

Educators, environmentalists, heritage practitioners, journalists and youth representatives studying and working in heritage are expected to attend the workshop, which will be opened by Portfolio Minister, Hon. Lisa Hanna.

The workshop, which forms part of the Ministry’s public awareness campaign on World Heritage, is being funded by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean.

Principal Director of Culture in the Ministry, Dr. Janice Lindsay, told JIS News that the workshop will take the form of a trainer of trainers programme.

“We are seeking to use Jamaica and the Caribbean’s first mixed site inscription, the Blue and John Crow Mountains, as a model for the region, because we feel that it is our responsibility to prepare diverse stakeholders in shaping the key messages and to build the technical competences, which will be critical in managing a World Heritage Site,” she said.

Dr. Lindsay said that people will have to change the way they think and talk about World Heritage, noting that “for too long it has been an area that seems to be a little bit remote and distant for many persons.”

She stated that Jamaica is one of 21 states that sit on the World Heritage Committee, an organisation of UNESCO.

“This means, for us, that we are in a very unique place to influence what happens with World Heritage …and they have up to 191 signatories to the UNESCO World Heritage List,” she added.

The Culture Director said there are plans to have future workshops depending on the availability of funds.