GHF in the News - 2006 News Archives

Group guarding world's heritage

July 2006

Sites most Vulnerable to Poverty, War Top List

By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News - Tuesday, July 4th, 2006

Working in the desert outside Baghdad, a Palo-Alto-based conservancy group has learned that bullets and bombs are not the biggest threats to its plans to restore an ancient Mesopotamian city. Instead, workers must contend with looters, erosion and the encroachment of urban sprawl, agriculture and rising waters.

In heat that can climb as high as 120 degrees, and protected by armed guards, scientists funded by the Global Heritage Fund are identifying the threats to the 3,400-year-old city of Aqar Quf, believed to be the capital of the Kassite dynasty. Then they plan to work with Iraqis to save it.

“What people see on television are images of Hummers and helicopters, not the beauty,’’ said Global Heritage Fund’s Josie Thompson, who is working with Google Earth imagery to survey Iraqi sites. “It was a very advanced civilization, with sophisticated architectural elements. It was the Garden of Eden. . . . It needs to be saved.”

The fund’s executive director, Jeff Morgan, a veteran of several high-tech start-ups and the venture capital world before turning to the preservation of ancient architecture, aims to take the non-profit fund where few other conservancy groups have gone: regions of the world most plagued by poverty and war.

Morgan and co-founder Ian Hodder, a Stanford University archaeologist, hope their “sustainable conservation” approach will fend off theft, destruction and the proliferation of McDonald’s franchises from the ancient townscapes of developing countries, setting the stage for responsible local control and protection. Since its founding in 2001, the fund has worked around the world, from Latin America to Southeast Asia.

“In 10 years, tourism will be the No. 2 industry in Iraq, after oil,” predicts Morgan, whose organization has won the support of some of the United States’ leading academicians, foundations and private donors. Morgan’s optimism, energy and intellectual firepower have helped boost the fund’s annual contributions from $302,200 in 2002 to $2.85 million in 2005—and attracted millions in matching funds. The group will generate more spending on global preservation this year than the UNESCO World Heritage Fund.

Morgan and his small staff bring modern technologies to the field of ancient heritage conservation. Thompson, for instance, has developed a Web-based network that gives teams around the world access to communication tools, software and other data using Google Earth and other tools. Equally important, they connect with a region’s residents, academics and private corporations, so they feel more invested in the preservation effort. “We ask them: What site best represents your country?” Morgan said.

Once a site is protected, tourism can help sustain the local economy and even promote political stability, he hopes. Former World Bank Vice President Johannes F. Linn, who serves on their board of trustees, calls the fund “unique in its focus on globally significant cultural heritage sites in developing countries.” University of Wisconsin anthropology professor J. Mark Kenoyer, who is working with the fund to build a museum and research center on the Indus civilization in Pakistan and India, says the organization has “improved both local and global awareness of the importance of our common global cultural heritage.” But the fund is in a race against time.

In southern Iraq, for instance, dozens of ancient sites are pockmarked by excavation and theft—not bombs. “When you rip up archaeology, it’s gone forever,” he said. “You can’t bring it back.” The fund’s challenge is to identify the most vulnerable and important remaining sites as soon as possible. Every project shares the same goals: Involve the community. Create an appropriate plan. Then pay for the work. Once a site is conserved, the fund seeks an official UNESCO designation for the site. This serves as a magnet for international cooperation, public awareness and possible U.N. funding. Finally, the fund appoints a local board of directors to oversee the future of the project. “Once there’s momentum, it can be kept going,” Morgan said. The Cornell-educated Morgan, 43, learned to marry entrepreneurial zeal and public service from his father, Jim Morgan, the former chairman and chief executive of Applied Materials, and his mother, former State Senator Becky Morgan.

The fund’s sites range from the My Son Sanctuary in Vietnam to the giant Mirador Basin of Guatemala—a remote and pristine jungle expanse, rich with ruins yet threatened by encroaching slash-and-burn practices. As part of its efforts to sustain the Mirador Basin, the fund provided a visitors center, camps, satellite phones, water and training for professional tours in a nearby village. Natives paint murals or weave rugs at visitor centers.

“It’s like venture capital,” he said. “You find the right leaders. You test them for their honesty and capabilities. Then, if they’re great, you put a lot of money behind them.” The fund’s goal of sustainability is shared by others. “I am enthusiastic about all the areas that GHF is working in,’’ said Duncan Beardsley, director of the Oakland-based non-profit group Generosity in Action, which links travelers to projects in developing countries. ``Tourism can become an effective economic engine.”

“Even within the poorest country, in the poorest condition, archaeology provides hope for the local economy,” Morgan said.

GLOBAL HERITAGE FUND PROJECTS In the next decade, GHF hopes to conserve and develop these sites while building a worldwide network of hundreds of experts to advise on preservation issues. The group also plans to deliver $30 million in private funding to support field work.

  * Mirador Basin, Guatemala
  * Chavin de Huantar, Peru
  * Foguang Monastery, China
  * Lijiang Ancient Town, China
  * My Son Sanctuary, Vietnam
  * Hampi, India
  * Indus Heritage Centre, India
  * Wat Phu, Laos
  * Asif Khan, Pakistan
  * Iraq Heritage, Iraq
  * Cyrene, Libya
  * Izborsk, Russia
  * Kars, Turkey