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espite its significant historical and cultural value, Southeast Asia’s underwater cultural heritage has largely been overlooked and is now in danger of being destroyed by massive development, a local United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) official has said.

Speaking at a seminar in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Monday, UNESCO Jakarta’s culture unit head, Bernards Alen Zako, said that development in tourism, transportation and telecommunications pose a threat to underwater cultural heritage sites, which have long been a target of theft.

“Southeast Asian countries have to work together to protect and conserve their underwater cultural heritage, so that future generations will be able to learn about our history,” Bernards said.

The conference was organized by ASEAN, UNESCO and the Culture and Education Ministry. In attendance were representatives of ASEAN member states and international experts, who exchanged information about underwater cultural heritage as part of a wider effort to build cooperation and develop protective measures.

Bernards said that in 2001, UNESCO initiated a convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage, which was ratified by several countries. However, among ASEAN members, only Cambodia had chosen to participate.

More Southeast Asian countries were expected to do the same after the conference, he said.

Pahadi from the East Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Center (BPCB), who spoke at the conference, said that Indonesia was currently studying the convention to see whether it overlapped with the prevailing legislation on cultural heritage.

Indonesia enacted a law protecting cultural heritage sites, including those in the ocean, in 2010. The law, however, was not comprehensive enough and a special regulation detailing efforts to protect these sites is needed, Pahadi said.

Indonesia is home to a plethora of underwater cultural heritage sites, particularly in Sumatra and South Sulawesi. However, only 50 have officially been recognized.

Of the 50, only one is listed as a protected cultural heritage site: the location of several wrecks of United States and Australians ships in the Sunda Strait.

“Each regional BPCB office has its own data. This data needs to be consolidated and studied to determine whether certain sites deserve to be declared a cultural heritage,” Pahadi said.

The most common cultural heritage items found in the ocean are ceramics, sunken trade ships and fighter jets from World War II that had crashed into the sea.

Pahadi said that protecting Indonesia’s cultural heritage would not be easy, considering the archipelago’s vast ocean territory.

“We always coordinate with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the water police and the Indonesian Navy. Yet, underwater cultural heritage items are still being stolen and damaged,” Pahadi said.