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| Alleviating Poverty through Culture (Human Rights) |
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| LEAP (Local Effort And Preservation) | (Asia Pacific)
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Cultural heritage preservation through local communities
Incorporating more than 12 heritage sites in the Asia/Pacific region and a network of site managers, the LEAP programme integrates several development projects, which in addition to heritage conservation address issues such as environmental conservation, rural decay and urban sprawl.( Luang Prabang, Lao PDR; Hoi An, Viet Nam; Lijiang, PR China; Vigan, Philippines; Kathmandu, Nepal. Extra LEAP activities are being implemented in Penang and Melaka, Malaysia Khokana in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal; Levuka, Fiji; The Andaman Sea Marine Park, Thailand; Ratanakosin and the Canals of Bangkok, Thailand and Cordillera Rice Terraces, Philippines).
Designed as an innovative tool to contribute to poverty alleviation, these projects aim at empowering the indigenous populations and local communities living within or adjacent to heritage sites to play a leading role in the preservation and management of those sites. Through LEAP, communities are given the opportunity to share the economic benefits of enhanced conservation, while maintaining their own social and cultural traditions.
The programme empowers people living in or near heritage sites to:
- understand and advocate long-term conservation of monuments and sites;
- play a leading role in the management of sites;
- develop means for financial benefit through the enhanced conservation of monuments and sites (attained through increased tourism), without hindrance to social and spiritual traditions.
Activities have included:
- hands-on training to assist local town and neighbourhood managers to develop gazetting, zoning and environmental management plans;
- research, development and training in low-cost traditionally-appropriate and historically accurate techniques in building maintenance;
- promotion and training to preserve authentic traditions of music, dance, painting, food etc., which have potential market appeal;
- curriculum development for formal and non-formal education in local history, heritage conservation and small business management skills.
- LEAP activities have contributed to the improvement of living conditions at pilot site locations, increasing participation by such communities in the preservation and management of heritage and the environment;
- LEAP has been successful in stimulating a paradigm shift in heritage conservation - from an elite technical specialization practiced by only a handful of experts into a popular grass-roots movement, where individuals accept responsibility and local communities assume stewardship of the heritage.
- LEAP has introduced new approaches to poverty eradication - showing how cultural assets can be a source of wealth for communities and how people can organise themselves to take control of these assets.
- The Asian economic crisis of the past 24 months has demonstrated clearly that infinite expansion of regional economies can no longer be taken for granted. As a result, many local policy makers are now transferring their focus to issues of sustainability, public participation and local community responsibility and empowerment. Now, more than ever, the LEAP programme is being used to provide a regional model for sustainable development and heritage resource conservation.
- Although accepted around the world as a leading model for heritage preservation and sustainable development, many heritage sites in the region are waiting to become LEAP pilot sites.
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