Mauritius has received UNESCO’s green light

Mauritius has received UNESCO’s green light to nominate the Black River Gorges as a World Heritage Site.

Preliminary work has already started on the documents with the help of Mr Guy Palmer, a mentor from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, who is in Mauritius for a week.

The government wants to make Mauritius a cultural destination and the dossier on the Black River Gorges will be submitted this year to the World Heritage Committee. If it meets all the criteria, the Black River Gorges will become the third World Heritage Site here. The two existing sites are the Aapravasi Ghat and Le Morne. 

Conservation 

The Black River Gorges falls under the category of World Natural Heritage Site. Minister of Culture Mookhesswar Choonee told NEWSNOW that Mauritius has been recognised by UNESCO as a reference concerning preservation and conservation of heritage sites at the Africa World Heritage Committee meeting held last week in Senegal.

UNESCO experts at the meeting not only recognised the Mauritian experience but also decided to give financial and technical support to the Black River Gorges dossier.

The minister also announced that his ministry was working to register intangible cultural heritage such as the Mauritian “sega typique”, Rodriguan “sega tambour”, Bhojpuri folklore and traditions and “sega Illois”.

“My ministry has made a request to the UNESCO to allow these sites to gain recognition. We are awaiting the decision of the UNESCO committee before moving forward,” said the minister.