2009-2011: "Safeguarding the Underwater Cultural Heritage of Asia and the Pacific"
Under the UNESCO regional project, funded by the Royal Government of Norway, entitled “Safeguarding the Underwater Cultural Heritage of Asia and the Pacific: Building Regional Capacities to Protect and Manage Underwater Archaeological Sites through the Establishment of a Regional Centre of Excellence Field Training Facility and Programme of Instruction,” UNESCO, in collaboration with the Underwater Archaeology Division of the Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture, Thailand, and ICOMOS-ICUCH, has established the Asia-Pacific Regional Field Training Centre on Underwater Cultural Heritage in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand.
At this Regional Field Training Centre, five training courses have been organised participated by in total 76 trainee experts from 17 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Africa. The training courses were facilitated by experts in underwater archaeology and museology from Australia, Denmark, Philippines, the Netherlands, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. Responding to the project's objectives, two types of training courses were initiated: the foundation courses introducing trainees to core concepts of the safeguarding of the underwater cultural heritage and the advanced courses on specific topics related to the management of the underwater cultural heritage. Five former trainees of these courses continued being supported by UNESCO to present their papers in the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage organised by the Asian Academy for Heritage Management (AAHM) in November 2011.
Apart from the training courses, UNESCO also launched an international exhibition "Saving Our Underwater Cultural Heritage" at Siam Ocean World, Bangkok, Thailand, in late 2010. The three-month temporary exhibition has later on become a part of the permanent showcase of the National Maritime Museum in Chanthaburi province in 2011.
