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Underwater Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of seventeen global goals to be reached until 2030. Elaborated at the United Nations through its Member States as well as global civil society, the goals have been agreed upon by United Nations Resolution A/RES/70/1 (25 September 2015).

Underwater cultural heritage research and protection contributes in many ways to the achievement of SDGs.

Events: The Ocean Conference on SDG 14 - UCH Side Event Invitation

SDG 4 Education

SDG 4.7 seeks to achieve that by 2030 all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, through education for the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. A part of these educational efforts needs to be addressing ocean literacy and ocean heritage. The oceans are not only the future of humanity, but also its past. The waters always served as means to gain food, to connect civilizations, to trade, to travel, and to conquer, but also as a sacred place of veneration. A large majority of humanity's development took place on areas that are now submerged. Underwater cultural heritage data is here an important educational source.

See: Heritage for Peace and Reconciliation

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Settlements

SDG 11.4 seeks to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage. To make coastal societies sustainable and to protect their cultural identity it is crucial to research and protect underwater cultural heritage. Underwater cultural heritage opens up numerous opportunities for recreation, cultural enrichment and sustainable development. Submerged heritage provides long-term opportunities for cultural and recreational tourism, and can contribute significantly to urban development. Public access to underwater heritage, in the form of museums or dive trails or else, ensures the protection and preservation of the underwater cultural heritage concerned, while promising a lasting return.

See: Sustainable Development Study; Culture & Development issue on Underwater Cultural Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean

SDG 13 Climate Change Action

SDG 13.3 seeks to improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. Climate change is a phenomenon that has always taken place as long as the earth existed. Underwater cultural heritage can provide vital evidence about how human populations have adapted to, or been affected by, climate changes in the past. For over 90% of the existence of humankind, the sea was about 40-130 meters lower than the level of today. A substantial amount of prehistoric and historic evidence of the life of our ancestors is now submerged. These remains are now underwater heritage, and provide an extremely important source of information about the first human civilizations, human origins, and also about climate change and its impact. Today, as we face sea level changes again, this heritage can help us put our current challenges into a wider context. It is moreover a sobering reminder of the reality of climate change.

SDG 14 Oceans

Understanding the historic relation of humanity with the ocean and the safeguarding of underwater cultural heritage from past times are important issues for the full implementation of SDG 14. Cultural heritage is the socio-historical element of oceans. Underwater cultural heritage research and conservation are an important part of oceanographic scientific research. They can help assess the impact of the ocean on human life. Protecting underwater cultural heritage from pillage, commercial exploitation, trawling-damage, construction and climate change facilitates a beneficial use of the ocean. Its research and valorization contribute to an improved ocean literacy, a better conservation of coastal and marine areas under SDG 14.5, and increase economic benefits to SIDS and LDCs through the sustainable use of marine resources, especially through tourism under SDG 14.7.

The ratification and implementation of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is monitored under SDG 14.c. 

 

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