Intangible heritage, ethics and biodiversity are the themes
on which ICOM-NATHIST will focus during the the conference
in Seoul and NATHIST invites all members and friends to send
proposals for papers, posters and short communications.
- Museums and Intangible
Heritage
We manage nature scientifically in taxons, but all over
the world people established their own and maybe quite different
“systems”, e.g according to the medical value
or according to the importance for daily life. People make
rocks sing and many traditions are centered around animals,
plants, rocks and water.
"Natural
Heritage – Three Perspectives on Intangibility"
by Michel van Praët, Paris published in ICOM news 2004,
2
How to present these intangible values in natural history
museum?
- Ethics
Protection of natural heritage means more than care about
living animals and plants, it also includes the protection
of fossil and geological sites against looting. The role
that natural history museums play in returning fossils or
collections, which were illegally acquired, to the country
of origin, or were just housed for protection, should be
questioned according to the ICOM Code of Ethics. The whole
process that is triggered from a potentially illegal acquisition
of a specimen/collection until which rights – the
copyright – museums have on their specimens, should
be discussed.
“The
legal (or illegal) travels of fossils, meteorites, rocks,
minerals (palaeo- or geo-specimens)” by ICOM-NATHIST
What can natural history museum do about the/their rights
and wrongs?
- Biodiversity
Natural History Museum as research institutions with their
huge archives play a vital role in creating biodiversity
inventories and networks. This may be on national level
as the National Inventory of Biodiversity (INBio)
of Costa Rica, or in co-operation - like the “Southern
African Botanical Diversity Network” (SABONET),
or on a worldwide level like the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility (GBIF).
To protect their national biodiversity many countries have
set up laws to regulate the access to their natural properties
like Namibia
or Papua
New Guinea.
What are the consequences for natural history museums
in data collecting and sharing?
Please send your proposal by June 30, 2004
(please use the form available as word95-file
or as pdf-file)
by email to sklee@cje.ac.kr
(with attached form)
or as fax to +82 43 299 0627
or as mail to:
Sun-Kyung Lee, Ph.D.
Dept of Science Education, Cheongju National University of
Education
135 Sugok, Heungdok, Cheongju
Chungbuk, 361-712, KOREA |
