Rising from the Depths cited as best practice at UNESCO meeting

The Rising from the Depths project was cited as an example of best practice in sustainable marine heritage management at the Meeting of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body on the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage last week (23^rd April 2018). Ulrike Guerin, UNESCO Programme Specialist responsible for the 2001 Convention, stated that the project could act as ‘a driver for cohesion between social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development’. The exchange day meeting, held on the 23^rd April at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, focused on the potential role marine cultural heritage could play in in the understanding, promotion and protection of Oceans within the forthcoming United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). It was attended by representatives of the 58 state signatories to the 2001 Convention and held in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO), the body responsible for the organization of marine science within the UN system.

Dr Jon Henderson, who attended the meeting on behalf of Rising from the Depths project, said ‘The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are setting the global agenda and, as a result, are going to be instrumental to academic research for the next 12 years. If marine cultural heritage is to progress, establish itself in modern practice, and realise its full potential, then it needs to respond to these challenges. Rising from the Depths has a key role to play in this as it is harnessing the potential of marine heritage to inform solutions to real challenges in East Africa such as rapid coastal development, climate change and unsustainable fishing practices.’