On the edge of the Gobi Desert, the ancient city of Dunhuang is included in China’s vast portfolio of cities with rich cultural and natural heritage. Antigua and Barbuda’s Petra Williams was among sixteen visiting media professionals who toured the city under the auspices of the Dunhuang Municipal Party Committee and government.

During the visit and after discussions with Li Guohui, leader of the Dunhuang Culture International Communication Center and the Dunhuang Broadcasting and Television Station, during which the cultural history and natural heritage of Dunhuang and Antigua and Barbuda were exchanged, Ms. Williams was invited to join The World Cultural and Natural Heritage Cities Media Alliance, on behalf of her media platform https://petrathespectator.com

Ms. Williams has a demonstrated record of promoting the cultural and natural heritage of her twin island homeland, and her media platform was considered ideally suited for joining the organisation that advocates for protecting and promoting heritage cities and recognizing the economic value of world heritage to national development and economic growth.

Since its formation in China in 2016, the Alliance has grown to include 40 media partners from domestic and international world heritage cities. It has made significant strides in promoting cultural and natural heritage, including formulating a charter, cooperation agreements, and the Dunhuang Declaration.

Participating media organizations have engaged in pragmatic and practical cooperation and exchanges, such as broadcasting each other’s promotional programs, promoting each other’s significant events focusing on cultural tourism and ethnic customs, co-hosting joint media broadcasts, and conducting joint field trips and creative activities. 
 
These efforts have created a cross-regional and international media cooperation model and explored new pathways for the inheritance and promotion of world heritage and sharing each other’s cultures.

According to the Alliance, “World Heritage is a rare and irreplaceable wealth of human beings.” It is recognized as a cultural relic and natural landscape with outstanding significance and universal value. It is humanity’s shared responsibility to protect, inherit, carry forward, and promote cultural and natural heritage around the world in an organized and planned way. This is the purpose of the UNESCO Congress of the World Convention on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972.

With the recent passage of the Cultural Heritage Protection Bill, Antigua and Barbuda is well on the way to fully appreciating and incorporating the value of its cultural and natural heritage into its economic development plan.  Having secured the endorsement of both Houses, the Act provides a comprehensive legal framework to protect and manage their rich cultural legacy on land and underwater, ensuring that historical sites remain preserved for future generations.

The legislation grants oversight responsibilities to the National Parks Authority, ensuring the protection of key sites, including over 250 shipwrecks, 56 forts, and hundreds of prehistoric and colonial-era landmarks, including church buildings.

Since 2016, Nelson’s Dockyard has been Antigua and Barbuda’s sole UNESCO World Heritage site. Work is ongoing to approve other sites.

Ms. Williams is excited about joining the Alliance and capitalising on the opportunity to share the rich cultural and natural heritage of Antigua and Barbuda with the alliance’s other members. “I am looking forward to the two-way engagement. We have so much to learn from others, their culture and heritage, and the systems they utilise to preserve while facilitating the growth of their creative industries sector. We also have much to share with the world.  I am ready to facilitate as a voice and conduit.”