Muscat: The Regional Conference on Combating Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property concluded its work by recommending enhanced regional and international cooperation to safeguard and protect cultural heritage, considering it a shared human legacy.
The Conference also called for adopting 3D digital documentation technologies to protect heritage in crisis situations; Including the topic of heritage protection in educational curricula to raise awareness among future generations; Launching community awareness campaigns to educate about the dangers of random excavation and illicit trafficking; Utilizing modern technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to track artifacts across electronic auctions and sales platforms and establishing joint digital platforms for data exchange and linking them to mobile applications to facilitate reporting of suspicious items.
The conference, organized by the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism in cooperation with the Omani National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, discussed the current challenges facing the protection of cultural property and reviewed best practices to strengthen legal and technical frameworks, thereby enhancing the protection of cultural heritage and limiting illicit trafficking.
