Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection and Management in Pacific Island States

Summary

The waters of the Pacific Ocean contains a wealth of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) encompassing the history of humanity from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age and witnessing climate change. This paper presents a summary of the outcomes of the UCH Programme in Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Notable progress includes the reference to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the UCH in SAMOA Pathway outcome document (2014), national and regional capacity building workshops, and Chuuk Lagoon Ocean Emergency Response – Safeguarding UCH, Addressing Environmental Hazards – Project (2017). Updates on the other UNESCO Conventions such as the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) are also provided in order to illustrate the concept of Heritage of Humanity and explore linkages among tangible, intangible and natural heritage safeguarding. The paper concludes by discussing the prospective of the Marine Archaeology from the Pacific SIDS perspective, which aims to engage the people in the Pacific in UCH protection with an integrated and community-based approach not only for scientific research cooperation but also for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reconciliation and peace.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 18795