This scientific forum, timed to the 170th anniversary since the discovery of Lake Onego petroglyphs and 55th anniversary of the recovery of the history of Novaya Zalavruga rock art in the White Sea region, was organized in the framework of the project to promote White Sea and Onego petroglyphs into the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The workshop gathered archaeologists from Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, South Korea, official representing Russian Federation and Republic of Karelia authorities in charge of cultural heritage conservation, members of the ICOMOS Russian National Committee, museum workers and educators who use rock art as a resource in their activities.

As reported by Senior Researcher at the Archaeology Section of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of KarRC RAS Nadezhda Lobanova, the tentative nomination for including the petroglyphs of Karelia in the UNESCO World Heritage Listhas been submitted to the Russian division of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS Russia). It was returned for minor revision in the “Comparative analysis” section. Even before the final decision is made, the Russian Ministry of Culture has allocated a sum of 4.5 million for preparing the full nomination, which is supposed to be submitted only after the tentative nomination has been accepted.

The tender competition for this assignment was won last autumn by the Likhachev Institute of Natural and Cultural Heritage.Atthemoment, some of the key tasks in the preparation of this UNESCO nomination are to delineate the buffer zone around the cultural heritage sites, and to draw up a detailed management plan. These are the tasks to be handled by specialists from Moscow. It would be wise,the archaeologist argued,to involve experts from Karelia in this work.