Palau, through the recommendation of Akatsuki Takahashi of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Apia Office, was the only country from the Pacific that was chosen to participate in this year’s Disaster Risk Management training program. Alexander said Takahashi was familiar with the Bai structures and the Bai sites in Palau.
“The program’s objective is to create a Disaster Management Plan (DRM) for Cultural Properties that are of great significance to the country,” Alexander said. “Part of the exercise is to establish the value of the site in terms of cultural significance and also economic significance.”
Among the activities of the program was a tour of cultural heritage sites in Kyoto and Kobe, such as the Kiyomizu Dera Temple, the Sannei Zaka Preservation District, and Ninna-ji Temple. The tour aims to showcase the developed management plans of the two cities to the participants.
Alexander said the group also met with experts — advisers in cultural departments, professionals in the field of Cultural heritage management, architects, and archeologists — who developed and implemented the management plans of the sites.
The group also had a number of simulations and demonstrations and was given lectures on past events, disasters, measures taken, development of Disaster Management Plans and their implementations.
“Learning from such experts who have gone through disasters was very helpful as they were giving us first hand knowledge on disasters and how to prepare for them,” Alexander said.
After learning from the lectures and demonstrations, Alexander and Ngirmang completed their proposed Disaster Management Plan and presented it to a group of jurors during the last session of the program.
According to Alexander, the experts expressed interest to collaborate with the participating countries to “ensure successful results of the training in their home countries.”
Other countries that participated in the program were Bhutan, Peru, Siberia and Turkey.
