To better understand Asian approaches to the protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH), Dalian Maritime University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong instigated a cooperative Asian Regional Project on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage; an emerging field in Asian international law, policy and practice, bringing together more jurisdictions than ever before. High-level government officials, preeminent policy-makers, influential practitioners, and esteemed academics from 25 jurisdictions are examining how their respective Asian jurisdiction is working to protect UCH through legislation, policy and practical responses and what that might look like in the future.

The future is an under-examined concept within heritage studies, even as heritage, underwater or otherwise, is often framed as something to be preserved “for future generations,” yet few have considered what that means. How to appropriately plan for the future and establish suitable rules for the ensuing safeguarding of UCH without considering the significant changes occurring in the way people relate to reality and perceive it?

Through anticipation, planning and prefiguration, this paper will evaluate legislative themes in the region, review national priorities, consider crucial challenges, and propose future directions for the protection and management of submerged sites, including, in a move away from universality, the potential development of an Asian strategy, or an Asian designed declaration on the protection of maritime cultural heritage.