Ethiopia’s rich cultural diversity and heritage are cornerstones of its global identity and historical significance. Also, its natural endowments attract visitors and scientists that look for ways and means of preserving them. However, preserving and managing this invaluable heritage requires sophisticated and meticulous planning and programming of activities focused on natural resources preservation. These efforts require collaboration at national, regional and global levels.
In Ethiopia, special focus has been given to the preservation and safeguarding of these heritages. The government has established the Ethiopian Heritage Authority at the national level and the Culture and Tourism Bureaus are located at regional levels. These institutions are created in recognition of the pivotal role of Heritage in the cultural diplomacy of the country. The involvement of the regional authorities is crucial in preserving and maintaining the cultural resources of the country. The goal of these efforts is not only attracting tourists but it is also focused on preserving natural resources, including forest lives, birds and water resources.
Heritage preservation presupposes the serious involvement of concerned authorities, including armed guards that look after animals and plants. Hunters of wild animals and local herbs destabilize the environment that is the reserve of these natural resources. Confirming the damaging role of these hunters, the concerned government authority takes measures to preserve the natural endowments of Ethiopia. These endowments comprise its rich historical and cultural heritage that strengthened its diplomatic ties with the African countries and globally. They also link the country with the AU’s cultural diplomacy initiatives.
The AU focused on augmenting the strategic planning capacities of African countries, including Ethiopia. The heritage team in Ethiopia has also designed the heritage landscape of the country. The team has made efforts in making exhaustive exercise, identifying training needs and gaps in heritage management across the nation. This process involved networking with concerned experts to reach at a comprehensive study on Ethiopian regional cultural and natural heritage assets.
These experts have highlighted the critical challenges in the documentation and preservation of heritages. One of these challenges is lack of planning and programming for documenting local heritages. There is a shortage of professionals that search for these heritages and register them properly. Such registration has to be confirmed by local owners of the cultural heritage. In this regard, there is limited community awareness on the social and economic values of these invaluable, precious and priceless resources.
Identifying these community heritages and preserving and maintaining them as local resources and tourist attractions require efforts by concerned government authorities. These institutions have to recruit staff and train them on how to preserve cultural heritages. Trained staffs are instrumental in reducing the substantial gaps in documenting and preserving local heritage in collaboration with community elders. These elders have incalculable knowledge about various cultural heritages in their communities.
In response to the needs of heritage preservation in Ethiopia, meetings and workshops have been conducted on strategic planning in heritage management. These are indicators of the pivotal response to the concerns on heritage preservation in the country. However, there were information and communication challenges faced by the attendants of these workshops due to technical problems.
The attempt of concerned entities and experts to discuss technical issues related to heritage preservation is a commendable effort. It is observed that the workshop provided comprehensive insights into strategic concepts related to heritage preservation. It has been encouraging to observe participants of the workshop to reflect on the mission, vision and strategy related to cultural diplomacy and heritage preservation. The management of heritage required analysis of past and present situations and projection of future trends in the area.
The analysis has to cover micro and macro environments, identifying critical success factors for effective heritage preservation. Based on the analysis, a strategy for the development and implementation of programs and projects has to be designed. Also, agencies, at regional and sub-regional levels have to be identified for effective implementation of heritage programs.
Moreover, these agencies have to fulfill the goal and program of the heritage preservation authority at federal level. Its goal focuses on fostering collaboration among management staff, experts and other stakeholders. This partnership ensures the preservation of Ethiopia’s heritage for current and future generation. It also attracts foreigners that assist in the preservation of heritage. These alien collaborators have to be cleared for their sincere contribution to the cultural diplomacy for the preservation of heritage not only in Ethiopia but also in the whole continent of Africa. African countries have the duty of collaborating in the preservation of their cultural heritage.
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The concerned authorities on the preservation of African culture and heritage have the responsibility of keeping cultural heritage in safety. These heritages have the power of attracting robbers and burglars that originate from domestic and external sources. They create linkages in transferring the precious African heritages out of the continent. The local sources are Africans, including Ethiopians, who are engaged in identifying and storing the local heritages. They are ready to transfer these resources to their external associates.
The latter ones come with foreign exchanges, usually dollars, for the purchase of the precious resources from the local burglars of African heritages. These precious resources are transferred to the global markets in which they are exchanged for prices that are immensely profitable. To break these linkages, the African governments will have to decide on an efficiently implementable strategy. Such strategy requires full-fledged authorities with human and material resources for protecting, maintaining and preserving heritages.
BY GETACHEW MINAS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 1 JULY 2025