Session 2
Criteria
for Shared Heritage
Presented
by Professor Professor Henry Cleere, former ICOMOS member
and consultant to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee
The lecture
guided workshop participants through the objectives and
structures of relevant cultural heritage conventions. The
PUSH Project, with its basic goal of promoting shared
heritage, is regional in its application and deliberately
focused on the identification of heritage elements that
demonstrate the physical and historical communalities of
this group of states. Professor Cleere noted the difference
between the regional and local goals of the PUSH project
and the World Heritage program and emphasized the need for
objective selection criteria, management, conservation,
presentation, and education. It is the shared cultural
significance of sites and monuments that must determine
their recognition under the PUSH criteria. He further noted
that it is important that there be comparability between
the sites and monuments which would make up a PUSH
transboundary serial group, both in terms of historical and
symbolic significance and the overall state of protection
and conservation. Professor Cleere asserted that the
eventual success of PUSH will depend upon the selection of
successful pilot projects which should be representative
and relatively straightforward to implement.
The lecture was followed by a discussion concerning site
selection. Participants voiced a preference for areas as
opposed to sites or monuments, specifically cultural
landscapes typical to the region such as hills, olive
trees, irrigation and water systems.
This led to a
discussion of difficulties the project faced in promoting
the concept of shared heritage in a highly polarized
region. Participants asserted that in order to influence
public opinion PUSH must involve the local communities.
Partnership with the Friends of the Earth Middle East's
(FoEME) Good Water Neighbors project was discussed as a
mutually beneficial way to begin work at the community
level as FoEME has a longstanding presence in Israeli,
Jordanian and Palestinian communities, particularly
throughout the Jordan River Valley. The Jordan Valley
cultural landscape is an exceptionally illustrative example
of a shared regional site as it is situated between Europe,
Asia and Africa.
Discussion concerning the project's need for an early
success in a community in order to make a lasting impact
followed. Consideration must be given to the limited time
of the project. Marketability and the use of the site were
also mentioned as important factors. Participants noted
their collective hope that the project's current framework
will be PUSH I, the beginning of a much longer
project.
