International Training Course on Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage 2010 - Palau Report: Disaster Risk Management for Bai ra Irrai (Traditional Chief's Meeting House)

Introduction: "To date, the Bureau of Arts & Culture does not have guidelines in place towards the effective measures to take aimed to disaster risk management of cultural heritage. The Bureau's office of the Palau National Register of Historic Places supervises the Palau Research Library which stores important documents, photos, tapes, reports from Palau and other regions of the Pacific. It is essential that the Palau Research Library establish a disaster risk management guideline for the proper disaster assessment, salvage, and preservation of its collections in the event of fire, flooding, or structure collapse due to typhoons. In addition, the entire building structure that houses the Bureau of Arts & Culture, the Civic Center Building, is also prone to such disasters. Beside the Palau Research Library, other sections within the Bureau also contains valuable and sensitive information such as oral historic documentation, archaeological database, survey equipments, artifacts, maps, and other numerous collections. Other structures that are of significant importance to the overall Palauan architecture, design, form, shape, and so forth to the Palauan traditional cultural does not have a disaster risk management plan. Now therefore with the aid of this training course, the Bureau of Arts & Culture can gain valuable experience to help local state municipality develop their specified disaster management plan for their highly significant cultural heritage structures. This report will use the example of the Bai ra Irrai which is a traditional Chief's meeting house that are located in various states throughout the Republic. These meeting houses are used by the traditional chiefs of the concerned village to discuss important social and cultural matters of their state and village. Each village has a bai structure. To date, there are only four traditional bai standing and in use by the village chief's. The report outline will being with the general geography of Airai State, describing the Bai ra Irrai, the actual structure, and then followed by the disaster management plan. Also included in this report are photos and maps to aid in visual orientation of the bai structure and other components." Project funding was provided by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Palau Historic Preservation Office, Bureau of Arts & Culture, Ministry of Community & Cultural Affairs, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

International Training Course on Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage 2010 - Palau Report: Disaster Risk Management for Bai ra Irrai (Traditional Chief's Meeting House)

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