The International Training Workshop – resolution
The International Workshop on the preparation of Section II Periodic Reports for Central and South Eastern Europe
(Levoca, Slovakia, 14-17 April 2005)
The participants to the above-mentioned workshop noted the following:
1. Periodic Reporting provides opportunities to review the current situation of World Heritage properties inscribed up to 1998, and to initiate works to fill gaps in their management and strengthening in-country cooperation in the field of heritage;
2. There is a number of common issues in the sub-region including
a) need to revise statement of significance and criteria
b) inadequate core zone and lack of/or inadequate buffer zones and the need to define boundaries more precisely,
c) need for coordination mechanisms and management plans,
d) need for raising awareness about and the World Heritage Convention and the value and the quality of the sites themselves,
e) need to develop and apply monitoring indicators
f) lack of resource and expertise
g) need for training and improved communication between experts within the sub-region,
h) lack of institutional memory and documentation
i) need to use modern methods of documentation
j) need to ensure that local authorities and other stakeholders have adequate information for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
3. The changing socio-economic and political situations of many countries in the sub-region means that the values, integrity and/or authenticity of many properties, needs to be re-evaluated in the context of achieving sustainable management for such sites;
4. Periodic Reporting may result in the need to re-evaluate or revise statements of significance, definitions of boundaries, criteria and categories, and this has implications to (a) the workload of the World Heritage Committee and (b) the number of sites that States Parties can nominate bearing in mind the Suzhou-Cairns decision.
5. Periodic Reporting has brought increasing sub-regional cooperation which needs to be continued and enhanced;
6. The results of Periodic Reporting should be used as a tool for management.
7. There is a need to disseminate at national and site levels the results of Periodic Reporting as well as the changes in the ways in which the World Heritage Convention is applied;
8. There is a need to revise and improve the Questionnaire for the second cycle of Periodic Reporting;
9. Additional workload is caused by the need to translate the questionnaire to the working languages of the countries in the sub-region;
10. The preparation of Periodic Reports for the properties inscribed after 1998 during the first cycle may be beneficial to enable States Parties to review conditions of all sites in one time and remind them of the obligations under the World Heritage Convention;
11. There is a need to coordinate reporting processes for different international and regional Conventions and programmes for natural properties;
12. The deadline for the submission of Section II Periodic Reports is 31 October 2005 and there is an urgent need to programme the work necessary to achieve this deadline;
13. There is a need to improve systematised communication at all levels involved in the management of World Heritage properties including UNESCO, the Advisory Bodies, State Parties, site managers and other stakeholders;
14. There could be an advantage for long inscribed properties in compiling all the information that would be necessary nowadays for nomination in order to improve their base data for the management of such properties.
15. Cultural diversity of the sub region is not adequately represented on the world Heritage List.
16. There is a need particularly in Central and South Eastern Europe to strengthen legal and institutional framework for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention and work on improve awareness and education and training programme. The States Parties in the sub-region should commit to work together with other European institutions to achieve this goal.
The participants thanked the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic, the Slovak national commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and the Municipality of Levoca for organising the international workshop and for their hospitality.
Issues arising from the site visits:
Serious concern was expressed by the participants concerning the reorganisation of the road system (in connection with the construction of the highway) in the landscape of the World Heritage site of Spissky Hrad. To avoid increasing traffic pressure coming from the south through the World Heritage town of Spisske Podhradie, the participants called upon the authorities of the Slovak Republic to finance the construction of a bypass road which will be located in the territory of Zehra, but not between the Castle and the town /outside of the WHS/. This solution has been accepted by the local authorities but cannot be carried out unless financed and implemented by the State Party.
Posledná editácia: 2009-11-29
