World Heritage Awareness Campaign Launched

A public awareness campaign, aimed at explaining the significance of  world heritage sites and their protection,  has been launched by the Ministry of Youth and Culture.

The campaign is part of activities to celebrate Heritage Month 2015 (October),  being celebrated under the theme: ‘Jamaican heritage: Impacting the World’.

Speaking at a Jamaica Information Service ‘Think Tank’,  held today (September 29) at the agency’s head office in Kingston, Minister of Youth and Culture,  Hon. Lisa Hanna,  said the education programme is to raise awareness and knowledge of world heritage and the protection of heritage sites, particularly  the Blue and John Crow Mountains.

The Blue and John Crow Mountains is Jamaica’s first World Heritage Site and the Caribbean’s first World Heritage Mixed (cultural and natural values) site. It is just over 26,000 hectares and is located in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, which is approximately 48,000 hectares.

“We are launching it to let persons understand what world heritage is and what goes into having a world heritage site, the protection of it, the entrepreneurship of it and opportunities for the local communities and what needs to be done to protect the environment,” she said.

The Minister pointed out that the second part of the awareness campaign will seek to strengthen the role of local communities in the conservation and management of cultural and natural heritage.

“The site is large and it is not only a heritage site, but it is also a ‘mixed’ cultural site. So, we have to engage the local persons who are there, the maroons, community members, not only in the site but around, to have them understand the importance of protecting the site, so that it does not  become endangered,” Ms. Hanna said.

The Minister noted that over the past two years, there has been a significant push to ramp up Jamaica’s cultural heritage, due to the “tremendous opportunities that are available.”

“The Ministry of Tourism is upgrading Port Royal. The JUTC now has bus tours for heritage and so what you will see over the next couple of months is a real thrust to have Kingston anchored, in terms of heritage tourism,” she added.