Three Sites Seek UNESCO Listing

Jakarta - Indonesia has added traditional houses from three provinces to the items to be listed as World Heritage properties by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in order to promote the nation‘s culture to the world.

The director of archaeological heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Suroso, said on Thursday that the houses were located in the provinces of South Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara and on Nias Island, in North Sumatra Province.

However, getting them accepted would not be easy as competition with other countries was very tight.

“We are cooperating with the Ministry of Education, the Coordinating Ministry for People‘s Welfare and other related institutions including the private sector to have the traditional houses listed as World Heritage sites,” he said. “UNESCO‘s assessment will be very critical so we have to prepare well for this.”

He said that Indonesia had been pushing for the last year for a total of 15 places to be listed as World Heritage sites, including Bali Island as a whole.

“Bali Island and Toraja in South Sulawesi now have tentative standing with UNESCO,” Suroso said.

“It means that we have just passed the second assessment and we are preparing management plans before the UNESCO officials go there (Bali and Toraja) to see what we have.”

He said Indonesia would benefit in a number of ways from the World Heritage listings.

“If we discover any damage to the listed site, we can seek assistance from experts around the world to fix it,” he said. “Besides, we can also create new tourist destinations which will create income.” Nurfika Osman

Source: TheJakartaGlobe.com (March 20^th, 2009)
Photo: MalayTourism.com - Tuti Nonka

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