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Speaking at the African World Heritage Conference in Benoni today, Minister Paul Mashatile noted with alarm recent events in Mali as "a major setback" that threatens an important part of African heritage, "not only to the people of Mali, but the entire continent and the world."

Minister Boubacar Hamadoun Kebe, Minister of Culture in Mali, called for an end to the destruction of Malian heritage. He also called for assistance from neighbouring countries in collaborating in preventing the trafficking of cultural objects from Timbuktu. Later today, a session will be dedicated to discuss the state of Malian heritage in light of the conflict in the country.

Earlier today, African Ministers of Culture, community representatives, academics, extracting(mining) industry and UNESCO representatives converged to discuss how African nations can preserve their World Heritage Sites without compromising their developmental and economic needs.

UNESCO requires countries that host World Heritage Sites to adhere to stringent preservation and management protocols. Failure to do so could result in sites being placed on what is called an Endangered List- which means such sites risk losing their status and thus countries losing tourism opportunities.

Africans nations argue that while they are proud to be host some of the world's best heritage sites, they also have responsibilities to develop their countries and create jobs. A classical example is a situation in which the mining industry applies to extract minerals in the vicinity of a world heritage site. Environmental lobby groups and other proponents of "universal value" status of a world heritage site would argue that mining operations would erode the value of the site, compromise preservation and management principles and ultimately render it useless. The same argument goes for any proposal for infrastructural development such as roads, human settlements, etc in the vicinity of World Heritage Sites.

It is for these and other reasons that African governments, academia, communities from world heritage sites met here today to discuss and develop a Position Paper on how the unique challenges facing the continent in the heritage sector could be addressed. This Africa Position will try and strike a balance between developmental needs of state parties and preservation principles required for a country to host a world heritage site.

It (the Position Paper) will be ratified by Ministers of Culture in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo in October and finally presented at the Closing Ceremony of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention in Kyoto, Japan. The main goal of these efforts is to have the World Heritage Convention's operational guidelines reviewed to be in line with the needs of all state parties, not only to suit some.

Currently, communities living near world Heritage Sites do not have representation at the World Heritage Committee. African state parties believe that the needs and aspirations of communities living near world heritage sites should be catered for in the operational guidelines.

Community representatives will present their views on Thursday 27 September 2012. The conference will continue until Friday 28 September.