A report on the measures taken to safeguard Macau’s historic center is being evaluated by UNESCO, as positive things have resulted since the world heritage listing ten years ago, according to Feng Jing, the World Heritage Center director for the Asia-Pacific region.
“During these 10 years the heritage protection system has been enhanced. Authorities have strengthened the heritage protection laws and urban planning is better,” Feng Jing told Lusa.
The director explained that the report was delivered in January by the local government and is being analyzed by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). However, it will not be discussed during the 39th session of the World Heritage Center, which started on Sunday in Bonn, Germany, and will continue until July 8.
The report was presented after UNESCO advised the local government to present “a new plan” to safeguard the heritage sites, since the previous plan was deemed as “insufficient to ensure efficient protection.” UNESCO said at the time that two factors were affecting the heritage conservation, namely “the negative impacts of new constructions close to the heritage sites” and “an apparently inadequate management system.”
Questioned by Lusa about eventual assurances given by the local authorities, a press adviser for UNESCO, Roni Amelan, said that the World Heritage Committee “asks for no assurances,” since “the cooperation is based upon a compromise by the countries to preserve sites that they proposed to be enlisted in the World Heritage list.”
UNESCO’s World Heritage Center organizes the annual sessions of the World Heritage Committee and its Bureau, provides advice to member states in preparation for site nominations, organizes international assistance from the World Heritage Fund upon request, and coordinates both the reporting on the condition of sites and the emergency action that is undertaken when a site is threatened. MDT/Lusa
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