Participation in the “UNESCO Sub-Regional Workshop on Serial Nomination for Central Asian Petroglyph Sites”

　The “UNESCO Sub-Regional Workshop on Serial Nomination for Central Asian Petroglyph Sites” was held from May 26 to 31, 2008 at Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia. Representatives of four countries in Central Asia except for Turkmenistan, namely, Kyrgyz, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as well as of UNESCO and ICOMOS participated in this workshop, and Yamauchi of the Institute attended as an observer. Although rock art (or rock painting) sites are found over a wide area not only in Central Asia but also in the entire Eurasian continent, the said workshop limits the area to Central Asia with the aim of collectively registering all the sites in that region as a World Heritage site. In this meeting, many case examples were introduced, and problems related to research, registration operations, management and conservation were discussed. Since this is a serial nomination of heritages beyond national borders, preparation of application forms for World Heritage site is likely to require more time due to differences in the progress of works in different countries. In the workshop, it was confirmed that similar workshops would continue to be held with the goal of World Heritage site registration in 2012. As a part of the Cooperative Projects for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage in West Asia, the Japan Center for International Cooperation in Conservation will participate in such workshops, keeping in mind future cooperative conservation projects, and endeavor to collect information while promoting cooperation with relevant parties and authorities in countries in Central Asia.