On our behalf, and surely, to their credit, a number of distinguished colonial civil servants, then serving in the Caribbean, expressed their surprise and regret that Mr. Acworth had not troubled himself to come to our shores. These venerable gentlemen, among them a pair from amongst the British Peerage, a government architect and town planner stationed in Barbados, an administrator of Grenada and an architect from Trinidad, managed to convince Mr. Acworth that our capital, Georgetown, was the finest town in the West Indies, being not only beautifully planned and apparently built up of very large greenheart buildings, all in the classic manner and also having beautiful proportions and detail, all painted white. In fact, the city was touted as being probably the most complete early 19th century town in the world.

Mr. Acworth's advisors also made sure he knew that Georgetown possessed the best public buildings in the Caribbean area and that, to the credit of Guyanese, the people of the Colony are very interested in cultural matters and would have responded eagerly to suggestions in regard to the protection of their [built] heritage. How fortunate that so optimistic a picture was painted in the mid-twentieth century of our people and our built heritage by others? And how fortunate for us now, more than half a century later, that we have yet with us some vestiges of that much celebrated heritage.

Given the recent lapse in municipal administration, rapid degradation of the city's infrastructure and loss of civic pride the challenge, at this time, must necessarily be twofold. Firstly, we must find new ways to preserve that which remains of the distinctive character of our urban form and, secondly and perhaps more importantly, to sustain (or perhaps rekindle) the interest of the people of Georgetown in our built heritage.

With regards to the challenge to preserve our wooden heritage Georgetown should not seek to reinvent the wheel.

After all, international research and documented experiences have shown convincingly that the participation of the local stakeholders is essential to making the process of conservation sustainable.

While we might have to adapt the established methods for our use, given our particular historic and socio-economic circumstances, Georgetown must, as far as its limited resources permit, continue to identify, inventorise, interpret, authenticate, valorise, manage and monitor that which has survived. It is implicit that, in each of these facets of the conservation strategy, no small measure of stakeholder participation will be required.

The noted Mexican restoration specialist, Chico Ponce de Leon, defines the responsibility for conservation as requiring the inclusion of the government - elected and appointed functionaries, legislative bodies, investigative and teaching academia, technical experts, and both the immediate users and beneficiaries of the resources. Thus the categories and sum and total of the stakeholdership is well established.

Georgetown and the wider Caribbean, for indeed we are part of one whole, must now move beyond the definition of the roles and role-players and plan for concerted action. Action tailored to our individual needs.

To this end UNESCO's World Heritage Centre (WHC) has organised a three-day international expert meeting on the Wooden Urban Heritage of the Caribbean Region and quite appropriately that meeting is being held here in Georgetown from today.

This meeting forms part of a series of Thematic Studies and related Expert Meetings involving the Caribbean region, initiated under the Global Strategy programme of UNESCO/WHC. Its aim is to facilitate the identification, protection, conservation and nomination of this type of vulnerable and fast disappearing heritage throughout the Caribbean region.

How fortunate for us at this critical juncture that the meeting hopes to create public awareness of the potential and possibilities of our wooden heritage in sustainable development and tourism; exchange information, ideas, and experiences in best practices with regard to conservation and tourism potential; formulate adequate strategies for cultural heritage conservation and development; identify potential properties for World Heritage nomination and document our wooden heritage for the publication of a comprehensive text on the Wooden Heritage of the Caribbean.