Many potential World Heritage sites in region

The region’s National Trusts share the belief that the Caribbean is undersubscribed in terms of World Heritage sites.

Chairman of the recently concluded first Caribbean Conference of National Trusts, Professor Emeritus Henry Fraser, said that all of the attending participants agreed that there were more sites within the region that should be placed on the prestigious list.

Currently there are 17 sites across the region, eight of which are in Cuba. The last site in the Caribbean to be accepted onto the list was this island’s Historic Bridgetown and the Garrison.

“A lot of us have felt that the Caribbean is under subscribed in terms of World Heritage sites. We have this huge Caribbean pool of indigenous people. We have 300 years of colonial struggle and yet there are very few sites,” he told The Grenada Advocate.

Fraser therefore disclosed that this was one of the areas that the group would be addressing.

“So there is a huge impetus among some of us to see whether we could use a conference like this to sensitise people and to facilitate other sites that deserve it to become world heritage sites,” he added.

The sites discussed included Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua, East Dry River in Trinidad, Pigeon Island in St. Lucia, and the already nominated Petro Trails, St. Vincent, and John Crow Mountains and Blue Mountain Range in Jamaica.

Admitting that the Barbados National Trust was in desperate need of funds, he expressed his hope that through networking with those from within the region, it would “give us an entree for getting global funding as several organisations getting together to ask for money would have more of an impact than a single entity”. (JMB)