There was broad support in the house of Representatives on Tuesday as the members debated the Cultural Heritage (Protection) Bill, 2025, with members on both sides giving their full support for the measure.
Foreign Affairs Minister, E.P Chet Greene, who has portfolio responsibility for the National Park Authority, the lead agency that will oversee the implementation of the Bill, reported that a select committee of the House had met to go through its provisions before it was tabled in parliament.
According to Minister Greene, except for the National Park area in English Harbour, there are no historical sites in the country that have legal protection backed by legislation. He emphasized that under the waters of the nation’s coastline there are hundreds of shipwrecks and on land, scores of historical and pre-historical sites.
“It is known that around our waters, there are an estimated 250 shipwrecks. These by themselves will create, can create employment, can add to our tourism product and certainly, the research component which we encourage through UWI FIC amongst our young people, will also be areas of benefit as we proceed on this path. It is also instructive to note that we have over 56 forts, over 100 pre-historic sites, some dating back over 3,000 B.C. Over 200 sugar cane estates, churches and architectural buildings,” he revealed.
He explained that the preservation of these sites is the chief reason why the government introduced the Bill at this time.
Culture Minister, Daryll Matthew, joined in supporting the bill and explained that as Culture Minister his area of concern included mainly the performing arts, but that the Bill was rightly placed under the purview of the NPA, which falls under Minister Greene’s portfolio.
“There is no confusion here and in fact, because of the fantastic work that the NPA has been doing, it is the appropriate place to vest the authority of overseeing the adherence of the legislation,” he added.
Support also came from Sir Molwyn Joseph, Minister Melford Nicholas and Sir Steadroy Benjamin on the government side as well as Barbuda Representative, Trevor Walker and the Member for St. John’s Rural West Richard Lewis on the opposition beach were among members supporting the Bill. All parliamentarians spoke of the timeliness of the Bill and especially the need to closely monitor the trade in rare artifacts as quite often visitors come to the country with this intention and secretly take things out of the country.
