Plans in hand for restoration of Panama’s historic forts

Panama has made “little progress” in the conditioning and restoration of Portobelo and San Lorenzo monuments, in Colon and the colonial historic sites will remain on the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco,) list of endangered sites, where they have been since 2012.

But plans are in hand to redeem the siuation according to Panama’s Cultural institute (Inac)
The Unesco heads-up camed during the committee’s last meeting in Bonn, Germany.
Unesco “regretted” the State’s delay in implementing the recommendations made in 2012 to improve the condition of the sites
“The committee expresses its deep concern that this may cause irreparable damage to the property and the attributes of its outstanding universal value,” it says.
Therefore, it urges Panama to develop a detailed “time” and “budget” work plan for the implementation of corrective measures in a three year time period.
The strategy should be submitted to Unesco in February 2016 to be reviewed by the World Heritage Centre and other advisory bodies, as well as an updated report on the state of conservation of monuments.
Wilhelm Franqueza, director of Heritage of INAC said that in 2012, the authorities ignored the warnings of the organization and now they are in the process of developing and implementing an emergency plan that allows them to rescue the historic site.
The fortifications were declared a world heritage site in 1980, as, according to Unesco, they are “magnificent” prototypes of military architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were built to provide protection to transatlantic trade from marauding pirates and buccaneers.
Sir Francis Drake was buried in the waters near Portobelo.