elsslots:
Includes a $4.6 million trip to Bonn.
Even after correction of the exchange rate for values quoted by Prof Meskell it is interesting to note -
a, Total Cost of gaining inscription $13 million Jamaican $
b. Cost of trip to Bonn to lobby for the nomination $4.6 million Jamaican $ (c US$ 32000)
c. Therefore cost of developing the proposal/management plans etc etc etc = $8.4 million Jamaican $ (C US$ 66000)
So of the total, 65% was spent on developing the nomination and 35% was spent on the trip to Bonn to support it.
Even allowing for the inevitable loading of the trip to Bonn for "hangers on", these figures tend to support Prof Meskell's thesis regarding the importance of what goes on at the WHC behind the scenes. The implication is that you don't turn up with your top diplomats, press the flesh and dish out the goodies (both tangible and "diplomatic" then your case will be severely compromised. So money spent at the "Back end" (i.e the WHC) could be money well spent!!
It needs to be remembered that the Blue Mountains nomination had a "difficult" inscription.
a. It had been "deferred" in 2011 - I wonder if the "costs" of this original nomination were included in the government figures given in the Gleaner and quoted by Prof Meskell
b. As a "mixed" site it was necessary to satisfy both IUCN and ICOMOS - the former proved very awkward forcing the removal of large parts of the property which it didn't consider met its requirements for "original Forest". BUT - in the end Jamaica was prepared to do whatever was necessary to gain inscription and acquired "Inscribe" recommendations from both IUCN and ICOMOS to take to the WHC.
In that case one wonders quite why extra lobbying etc was going to be necessary. A large part of Prof Meskell's case was the amount of "conversion" of AB recommendations -"reject" to "defer", "defer" to "refer" and "refer" to "Inscribe" (etc!!!) which was taking place at the WHC in recent years. That is undeniable and has been commented on and documented on this web site - but Jamaica wasn't in that situation. I suppose that it still important to see and be seen - you might make contacts or do things for others which will make a future nomination such as Port Royal have an easier passage!!!! Or, again as per Prof Meskell, enable you to do something regarding "heritage" which might gain something else in a completely different sphere. We should not be surprised I suppose that the UAE's Khor Dubai seems to have a charmed existence. UAE must have plenty of money to splash about to help other countries on all sorts of things