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Major archaeological and cultural heritage sites are being damaged and destroyed at an alarming rate around the globe, perhaps nowhere as quickly as in developing countries and regions with limited financial resources or expertise available.
To address this crisis, GHF has established Global Heritage Network (GHN) to:
- Act as an early warning and threats monitoring system for endangered archaeological and cultural heritage sites in developing countries.
- Enable the collaboration of experts and conservation leaders to mitigate the threats.
- Facilitate a holistic, Preservation by Design® process of planning, science, community and partnerships to preserve these sites.
To achieve this, GHN consists of three components:
Project Updates
Global Heritage Fund (GHF) is pleased to report that its ongoing project work at Wat Phu, Laos, which began in 2006, has resulted not only in tremendous conservation and restoration progress but also in a significant increase in tourism and local employment.
In February 2011, Wat Phu, a ruined Khmer temple complex in one of southern Laos' poorest regions, celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its inscription onto UNESCO's World Heritage List. The designation, which made Wat Phu only the second site in Laos to hold such prestigious status, brought much-needed attention to the site and region, and GHF's project work has enabled the local community to capitalize on that opportunity.
Learn more about the project here.
GHF is pleased to announce that its conservation project at Ur in Iraq is starting this month. Famous as the birthplace of Abraham and the site of the best preserved ziggurat in the Middle East, Ur in the past 20 years has been damaged by war and conflict and today is under threat from neglect, exposure and inappropriate restoration.
Learn more about the project and its goals here.
Global Heritage Fund's work to empower the local community at Banteay Chhmar took another step forward recently with the launch of the community's tourism website - www.visitbanteaychhmar.org.
This platform has been designed by Global Heritage Fund and Heritage Watch to improve the marketing, sales, booking process and feedback for the tourism services provided by Banteay Chhmar's Community-Based Tourism (CBT) organization. GHF has been supporting CBT at Banteay Chhmar since 2008 as a crucial part of our Preservation by Design® approach.
Tath Sophal, GHF's coordinator for CBT said, "I hope this website will show the progress that we have made over several years and help point us towards a better and stronger future as a CBT organization. As always, our goals are to increase visitation and develop the project in a positive way, working with a participatory spirit and with selfsufficiency as a community goal."
The purpose of the Global Heritage Preservation Fellowship Program is to support cultural heritage conservation and community development work with the potential for significant contributions to the long-term preservation of endangered cultural heritage sites in developing countries by international and in-country scholars and students.
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