National parks officials will propose the northern cave where a team of footballers went missing in 2018 be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The cave in Chiang Rai province, where 12 members of the Wild Boars football team and their coach were trapped by floodwaters for 17 days before their rescue, will be nominated for recognition by the U.N. cultural agency as a landmark with historical significance.
National parks chief Ratchada Suriyakul said the department has studied the area and authored a decree to help deem it suitable as a possible UNESCO site covering over 12,000 rai (1,920-hectares) across four subdistricts: Wiang Phang Kham, Pong Pha, Pong Ngam and Huai Krai. He said that he hoped it would win UNESCO designation by 2025.
Thailand continues to take advantage of the massive world interest in the rescue of the Wild Boars to promote tourism in the impoverished region. After three years of closure, the park reopened in October and sees more than 1,000 daily visitors.
A creative agency announced in August that it would spent a billion baht to build a “world-class tourist attraction” where visitors could relive the rescue via a virtual simulation.
Not only that, but a handful of movie projects recounting the events have been released including the Ron Howard-directed Thirteen Lives, Netflix’s Thai Cave Rescue (in which Thai officials were directly involved in the project), Cave Rescue (a re-release of 2019’s The Cave featuring Coconuts editor Todd Ruiz), and the National Geographic documentary The Rescue.
In 2021, the United Nation’s cultural agency went forward with the controversial decision to bestow heritage status on the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex despite concerns about the longrunning persecution of its ethnic Karen inhabitants.
Thailand has six sites recognized for their cultural or natural importance by UNESCO: The Ban Chiang Archaeological Site, Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, the Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries, the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex, and Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex.
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