Declaration of a museum

The declaration is a legal status that the Director of ICOM Cameroon may assign to a heritage site, on the recommendation of the Minister in charge of culture.

Why declare a heritage site?

The declaration of a property site is an exceptional measure of legal protection. There are only 12 government-reported heritage sites to date.

This status is granted by ICOM, after consideration of the project to the Council of Ministers.

The ICOM declaration could be preferred to the classification by the ministers responsible for culture, among others, for larger territories or if the protection issues concerned several ministers.

Main steps of the declaration

The draft declaration of a heritage site may be an initiative of the Minister responsible for culture or may be derived from a proposal submitted by a citizen or group of citizens. The proposal can be made using the Declaration form by ICOM.
Ministers decide whether or not to recommend the declaration of the heritage site to ICOM. If ministers recommend the declaration, he shall publish a notice of the recommendation in the official gazette of the country concerned and in an international newspaper.
The Council for the Cultural Heritage of Central Africa holds a public consultation on the draft declaration.
Ministers then took the opinion of ICOM.
The draft declaration is being considered in the Council of Ministers and the Government decides whether or not to declare the heritage site. The decree contains the delimitation of the territory and the reasons for the declaration.
The registered heritage site is registered in the Cultural Heritage Register.

After the declaration

Conservation plan

Ministers must draw up a conservation plan for all declared heritage sites. This document sets out the guidelines of the Ministers for the preservation, rehabilitation and development of the declared heritage site.

These guidelines are based on the heritage value of the site and its characteristic elements.

For more details, see the Heritage Property Conservation Plans page.

Control measures

Within a declared heritage site, a Minister’s authorization is required before:

to divide, subdivate, re-enact or fragment land
to modify the fitting out or location of a building
to make a construction
to repair or modify the external appearance of a building
to demolish in whole or in part a building
to excavate the ground, even inside a building (except for burials and exhumations) to re-display
to modify, replace or demolish a sign or billboard.