8th Expert Working Group Meeting for the Preservation of the Bamiyan World Heritage site

The 8th Bamiyan Working Group meeting is organized by UNESCO (World Heritage Centre in close collaboration with UNESCO Kabul Office) for the 25th and 26th of March 2010 in Munich at the Munich Technical University in cooperation with ICOMOS Germany. The aim of the meeting is to advise UNESCO and the Afghanistan authorities on issues related to the conservation of the Bamiyan World Heritage property, by reviewing and assessing ongoing activities in Bamiyan as well as, identifying needs and the opportunities for future initiatives. In this respect, the meeting will also provide an opportunity for the coordination of international efforts.

Considering the fact that generous contribution from the Government of Japan continues from 2008 for three years within the framework of phase III project, further emergency conservation activities must be coordinated and implemented in order to allow the completion of the important safeguarding intervention at this World Heritage site in Danger to ensure the site sustainability.

For this objective, it is of the utmost importance to organize an internal meeting between UNESCO and key international experts together with the Afghan authorities for monitoring and evaluation of the project and in order to set future priority actions for 2010. Upon reaching a consensus on the technical intervention methods for sustainable management of the cultural heritage site of Bamiyan between UNESCO and these key international experts, UNESCO will draft the recommendations to submit and discuss with the Government of Afghanistan for its final approval.