WASHINGTON, DC, USA (CMC) — The United States Department of State says cultural heritage professionals from Jamaica will join others from across Africa, Brazil and Colombia in an extraordinary workshop on “Protecting Slave Related Sites and Antiquities” associated with the Transatlantic slave trade.

The State Department said it is sponsoring the workshop today in Charleston, South Carolina, that will involve professionals from Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.

Organised by the US National Park Service, the State Department said the workshop will focus on legal, national, community and other strategies “to protect this heritage from damage and loss due to vandalism, theft and other threats”.

“The workshop is the first of two organised to support cultural heritage professionals from partner countries in their efforts to apply cultural preservation policies and best practices at slave trade sites, improve protection of sites associated with the slave trade, foster community engagement as a means of site protection, and support terrestrial and submerged resource survey and stewardship,” the State Department said.

The workshop supports the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).

A second workshop focusing on historic and archaeological site management will take place in April 2017.