Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains - which provided refuge for the island’s indigenous people and later for Africans fleeing slavery - are among 24 new sites incribed on UNESCO's World
Heritage List, a first for the Caribbean island.
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| Nanny Falls in the Blue & John Crow Mountains (JCDT) |
The UN's cultural agency said the mountains were selected for their universal significance, their relationship with unique traditions and their position as the natural habitat of biologically diverse plant and animal life. These criteria are part of the requirements that all World Heritage List “candidates” must meet.
The mountains are designated as a "mixed, cultural and natural site", while the 23 other sites are "cultural" entities in countries such as China, Mexico, Singapore, Uruguay, France
and Turkey.
The List now comprises 1,031 sites in 163 countries, with Italy, China and Spain leading the pack. UNESCO extended the boundaries of three existing sites as well, including the Routes of Santiago de Compostela, while three sites in the Middle East were added to the "in-danger" list.
The List now comprises 1,031 sites in 163 countries, with Italy, China and Spain leading the pack. UNESCO extended the boundaries of three existing sites as well, including the Routes of Santiago de Compostela, while three sites in the Middle East were added to the "in-danger" list.
Meeting in
Bonn, Germany, from June 28 to July 8, the agency’s World Heritage Committee
also adopted the so-called Bonn Declaration. This recommends that heritage
protection be included in the mandate of peacekeeping missions "where
appropriate".
UNESCO’s
Director-General Irina Bokova additionally launched a “Unite for Heritage
Coalition”, whose aim is to strengthen mobilization in the face of deliberate
damage to cultural heritage, according to the UN.
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| Jamaican Tody, a mountain native. (Photo: R. Miller) |
In the view of the World Heritage Committee, the Blue and
John Crow Mountains in Jamaica have special significance not only for the island's residents but for the rest of the world.
“The site
encompasses a rugged and extensively forested mountainous region in the
south-east of Jamaica, which provided refuge first for the indigenous Tainos
fleeing slavery and then for Maroons (escaped African slaves),” UNESCO says in
its description.
The Maroons
“resisted the European colonial system in this isolated region by establishing
a network of trails, hiding places and settlements, which form the Nanny Town
Heritage Route,” it continues.
“The forests
offered the Maroons everything they needed for their survival. They developed
strong spiritual connections with the mountains, still manifest through the
intangible cultural legacy of, for example, religious rites, traditional
medicine and dances. The site is also a biodiversity hotspot for the Caribbean
Islands with a high proportion of endemic plant species, especially lichens,
mosses and certain flowering plants.”
The mountains
have been represented in many Jamaican literary and historical texts, including the prize-winning novel Sweetheart. But mining operations have recently marred other areas of the region's beauty, so this inscription on the World Heritage List may give a boost to environmentalists.
For more
information on the inscribed sites, go to: http://whc.unesco.org/en/newproperties
