Interest in maritime and underwater cultural heritage and the role of civil society in its evaluation were presented at the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco in Rabat on Monday in the presence of civic leaders and experts from UNESCO and UNESCO. ISESCO.
According to Al-Mami Ahmed Bazid, President of the World Association for the Protection of Marine Heritage, this meeting is designed to “lift the veil of underwater cultural heritage” and “raise practical questions and proposals that will help build bridges between collective initiatives on the one hand, and evaluate public policy in the field of protection and appreciation of the marine and underwater heritage, on the other hand” in order to “acquire a common basis for enhancing the value and protection of this heritage”.
At the National Library, Salam Maritime Heritage Protection Association organized an exhibition on the sidelines of the meeting dedicated to this heritage and efforts to discover and preserve it.
Ismail Alawi, a former minister and politician, said: “Morocco’s shores are rich in heritage from shipwrecks, clashes of societies and international forces; In Dakhla, for example, a ship belonging to
At the beginning of the last century, it is now deep in the waters near the city, and the German ship repelled the Allied attack and sank it, and on the initiative of the youth of the city of Dakhla and its region, settled in its place.
Al-Alawi added: “We must keep looking because she is not the only one; Rather, there are other ships from the First World War, a few miles from the city of Larache, and researchers who specialize in diving must search and relocate to discover their material and moral heritage.
And the intervention continued: “The scuttled is not limited to what was scuttled in the last century, but rather there is something that dates back to the era of the Moroccan maritime jihad, at the mouth of the river Bouregreg and Al-Bashir, for example, dates from the nineteenth century and was acquired Hassan I for the modernization and modernization of the Moroccan fleet and sank at the outlet of the river.
Karim Khandili, Director of the UNESCO Office for the Maghreb, in turn, spoke about the agreement of the organization for the protection of underwater heritage and added: aspects under pressure”. Economic and military, as well as a legal dimension that does not define what is in the seas beyond the borders of states.
This agreement, according to the spokesman, since 2011 concerns “underwater heritage, which is somewhat unknown, with the aim of protecting it and passing it on to future generations.” It is not limited to natural heritage such as coral reefs and biodiversity, but also includes cultural heritage and its protection from threats such as treasure hunting and those who support them.
Hendili stated that “unlike land, the sea is subject to very complex international law with loopholes that are difficult to sort out”, in addition to “illegal trade and a lot of abuse in the extraction and export of these finds; And this continued even during the coronavirus pandemic, which did not reduce illegal trade, but rather moved through it to new means of electronic sale.”
