More than 50 World Heritage Specialists from the regions of Russia and the CIS countries gathered in the Research Institute. to discuss the identification, nomination and sustainable management of World Heritage properties. Opening the Congress, Director of the Institute Vladimir Aristarkhov reminded about the importance of cross-border cooperation and that only three cross-border objects in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) space have been added to the UNESCO List so far. This Geodetic arc Struve (in Russia, Belarus and Moldova), the Tien-Shan corridor of the so-called “Great Silk Road” (passing through the territory of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), as well as the natural object of the Western Tien-Shan (in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan).
“I think that for the CIS space, united by a common history and having the richest cultural heritage, only three transboundary nominations are catastrophically small,” he said, expressing the hope that congress participants could put forward promising ideas for expanding this list.
Supporting the idea of continuing such nominations, the head of the Secretariat Section of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Kirill Rynza noted that such initiatives at the World Heritage Center are being given special attention.
“Our states and nations can find a significant number of monuments that could further unite us”, he stressed, adding that the Secretariat of the Commission highly appreciates the contribution of the Heritage Institute in strengthening cooperation with its closest partners, the CIS states.
President of the National Committee ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) (Russia) Alexander Kudryavtsev also supported the idea of expanding cross-border nominations, noting that this is not only useful, but also very interesting work, which is close to Russia like no other country: “As a rule, these zones are a melting pot of multiculturalism. But we, in Russia, have a lot of cultures. It is extremely interesting to draw attention to this and to show that synthesis creates completely new cultural objects”.
The presentation of the historical and cultural heritage of Tajikistan, Director of the Scientific Research Institute of Culture and Information of the Republic of Sharif Komilzoda, report “Pilgrimage routes as promising nominations to the World Heritage List” Deputy Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region Elena Kutukova, as well as information about the experience of management of such objects as museums-reserves “Kizhi Pogost” and “Island-town Sviyazhsk”.
Source: www.heritage-institute.ru