World Monuments Fund turns its focus to Myanmar's heritage sites

As the world changes, so does the orbit of the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

Set up in 1965 to save and preserve some of the world's most treasured historical and cultural heritage sites, the New York-based private non-profit organisation today works in more than 90 countries and has close to 70 sites - ranging from ancient to modern, grand to the more common - under its "watch list".

In 2012, the WMF contributed more than US$90 million in funding to these listed sites; the organisation raised an additional US$174 million from donors and other sources.

Of those sites, 14 are in Asia including Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and the mainland, where the WMF is already working on a large-scale restoration project at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Next year, its reach in the region is expected to expand into Myanmar, a country that is undergoing major political, social and economic changes.

When its president, Thein Sein, met his US counterpart Barack Obama last month - the first Myanmar leader in almost 50 years to set foot in the White House - the historic visit reignited relations between the two countries.

WMF's president and chief executive, Bonnie Burnham, noted this gradual diplomatic shift after her team made a trip there late last year. Myanmar is now very much on its radar. "When the US had an embargo on relations with that country, it didn't make any sense for us to invest time and effort because we wouldn't be able to do anything," she says. "But now the situation has changed radically overnight."

With help from a local conservation group, the Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT), her team was able to identify a number of priorities that it had forwarded to the US embassy: "It's a complete reversal where the US government didn't recognise Burma and now the US government is trying to help them and it happens very quickly."