Activities >> Sites

Senegal and The Gambia: Cross border serial Nomination to the World Heritage of the Senegambian Stone Circles

Background

The Cultural Heritage organisations of Senegal and The Gambia have presented individual nomination dossiers to the World Heritage Centre in the past (1995 for the Gambia, and 2003 for Senegal), for the nomination of some of their Megalithic sites, but these individual dossiers had not been accepted. To strengthen the nomination dossier, they decided to join their forces and prepare a cross border nomination file for 4 of the Senegambian Stone Circles sites.

Objectives

The objectives of this projet situé were (1) to prepare a nomination dossier for inscription of the site on the World Heritage List; (2) to prepare a management plan for the management and conservation of the site; (3) to provide training to the Senegalese and Gambian nationals involved in the process of preparing the necessary documents.

Structure

The project was to be implemented by DPC-Sénégal and NCAC-The Gambia with the assistance of CRATerre-EAG. A strong collaborative working relationship has been established benefiting from a number of opportunities to meet within other Africa 2009 activities. Work was undertaken on the base of the existing. Gaps were identified and work was started by the group of national experts working under both directors. This group included former participants to the Africa 2009 courses and experts with whom CRATerre-EAG had already collaborated in the past. A mission on the field was organised. Besides surveys and assessment exercises, stakeholder meetings were also organised both in Senegal and The Gambia to check information. The overall nomination file was completed through a number of exchanges using Email communication.

Results

• The nomination file has been completed.
• It has been submitted for consideration by WHC in 2006.
• Gambian and Senegalese professionals who had already participated in some of the Africa 2009 activities have been able to put their knowledge into practice.
• A common cross-border management platform was defined.
• Experiences and ideas were shared between the professionals of the 2 countries.
• About 100 persons have been involved (more or less) in the elaboration of the management plan for the site. And the mission at the site has been the occasion of a media campaign, including TV coverage.
• The local and State authorities have been seriously involved (59 people involved) and have provided great assistance, including means to acquire satellite image and helicopter flight for aerial photographs.
• An important amount of information was produced and processed, and could be recycled into promotional products in the future.
  

Activities still to be undertaken

• Follow-up to the nomination process.
• Continuation of the management planning process, including better stakeholder participation and clear definition of priorities.
  

Members of Africa 2009 network involved

• Hamady Bocoum, Directeur du Patrimoine Culturel du Sénegal (SC) ;
• Abdoul Aziz Guissè, Directeur du Patrimoine Culturel du Sénegal ;
• Amadou Bamba Koné, Directeur du Patrimoine Culturel du Sénegal ;
• Momodou Joof, executive Director, National Centre for Arts and Cultures, The Gambia (DS) ;
• Baba Ceesay, Principal Cultural Officer, Museums and Monuments, The Gambia (RC,DS) ;
• Bala Saho (NCAC), The Gambia (RC) ;