Asia and the Pacific

The course on ‘Cultural Heritage Protection in the Asia-Pacific Region 2015: Preservation and Restoration of Wooden Structures’, was launched on 1 September at the ACCU Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office in Nara, Japan and will continue until 1 October 2015.

Following ICCROM’s 2010 survey, it was recognized that 60% of museum collections are at serious risk due to overcrowding and poor storage conditions. Immediately afterwards, ICCROM launched the development of the RE-ORG methodology in partnership with UNESCO. As a result, the General Assembly of ICCROM urged the 134 Member States to consider this major issue in November 2013.

Following a 2011 resolution adopted by ICCROM Member States on the reorganization of museum storage, in 2013 ICCROM launched a large-scale call for partners to implement RE-ORG projects worldwide. More than 40 Member States showed interested in the initiative. Since then ad hoc regional and national initiatives are being organized.

In an effort to turn the tragedy and loss of the 25 April earthquake into an opportunity to promote the resilience of cultural heritage, ICCROM is currently in Kathmandu carrying out intensive training in partnership with ICOMOS, the Smithsonian Institution and ICOM. This is being done at the request of the the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu and the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Nepal...

When news of the massive earthquake in Nepal broke out, ICCROM led an initiative to produce the Kathmandu Cultural Emergency Crowdmap, which received extensive on-the-ground reports about damaged heritage. As a result, an overview of the devastation was pulled together immediately and now an international team is in Kathmandu preparing the groundwork for a sustainable salvage operation.

As the news of a massive earthquake in Nepal broke out, ICCROM, ICOMOS-ICORP and their combined network of heritage professionals joined forces to produce the Kathmandu Cultural Emergency Crowdmap to gather on-the-ground reports on damaged heritage in order to provide a consistent situation overview. The preliminary results have now been summarized into a report available for download.

ICCROM, in cooperation with UNESCO, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (ACA) and the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH), organized an International Expert Meeting on Cultural Heritage and Disaster Resilient Communities. The meeting was held before and during the 3rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction (the 3rd WCDRR).

A series of devastating earthquakes have struck Nepal over the weekend, causing loss of more than 7000 lives. The initial 7.8 magnitude quake, along with aftershocks as high as 6.7 magnitude, caused destruction and severe damage to the historic centre of Kathmandu and other heritage sites throughout the Kathmandu Valley. Quake-related damage has been reported throughout the region.

The CollAsia international course on Handling, Packing and Moving Collections came to a close in Kuching, Malaysia. Organized by ICCROM and the Sarawak Museum Department, with the support of the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), the CollAsia activity aimed to improve scientific literacy and critical thinking skills among the diverse professionals caring for Southeast Asian heritage...

CollAsia has brought together a diverse set of professionals with a combined work experience that makes for valuable exchanges and discussions. Caring for cultural heritage is at the heart of the work of participants and the course team, but different working roles, resources and cultural contexts give rise to unique challenges and solutions, which everyone can learn from.