Training workshop on Heritage and Environmental Impact Assessment in World Heritage Sites
ARC-WH, in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture in the Sultanate of Oman, alongside ICCROM and IUCN, organized a training workshop from 23- 27 September 2018, on Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) concepts in the field of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
The workshop took place in Muscat, Oman and was a pioneering experience in the Arab Region since it brought a number of representatives and site managers of cultural, natural and mixed World Heritage sites together, and provided them with a unique opportunity to learn and share their expertise on the topic of World Heritage Impact Assessments.
A total of 11 Arab States benefited from the workshop and enhanced their understanding of main concepts and mechanisms of the World Heritage Convention, including conservation, management and protection in conjunction to the topic of Impact Assessment in cultural and natural sites. The participants were introduced to the ICOMOS HIA Guideline and the IUCN EIA Advice Note, in order to be able to apply these approaches to the case study of the recently inscribed World Heritage site, Ancient City of Qalhat, in Oman, which was the central focus during the workshop.
During a field visit to the Ancient City of Qalhat, participants were divided in working groups to draft a HIA and EIA of this site. Each group then presented their findings.
Because this topic is one of the recurring needs of conservation of World Heritage sites, this workshop is considered an integral component to ARC-WH’s strategic objective to strengthen the culture and nature interlinkages for its regional programme for World Heritage, and will be followed by future in-depth HIA-EIA activities in the Arab Region.
