World Heritage Cultural Landscapes

The concept of cultural landscapes has a long and varied lineage, including antecedents in geography and ecomuseums, and can be applied at all scales. In the 1990s, the World Heritage Committee adopted cultural landscapes as an additional category of property as part of its strategy to broaden the scope of World Heritage listings. By July 2006, there were 53 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and officially recognised as being cultural landscapes. Such recognition is an acknowledgement of the importance of human–environment interactions, especially those of a more traditional type. Not surprisingly, cultural landscapes have their own particular management issues, as well as sharing others with World Heritage properties in general. These properties, however, also present many opportunities to increase people’s understanding of both cultural and environmental values important to the future of humankind on a global level.     

On the construction of ‘outstanding universal value’: Some comments on the implementation of the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention

Abstract

A number of imbalances in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention and in the composition of the World Heritage List have recently been noted. This paper restates the intention of the Convention to establish a select list of cultural and natural heritage of ‘outstanding universal value’. Criteria established to assist in the assessment of this World Heritage value are noted here as being indistinct in their articulation of type and level of value and their wording is assessed as having made it difficult to ensure the recognition of interactions between people and the environment of ‘outstanding universal value’. In a recent initiative cultural landscapes of World Heritage value are now beginning to be inscribed in the World Heritage List and are interpreted as being just one part of the whole range of interactions between nature and culture. At its 20th session in December 1996 the World Heritage Committee will consider the development of an overarching Global Strategy for a representative World Heritage List and a single common set of criteria and conditions of integrity to be applied when assessing and evaluating both cultural and natural heritage as recommended by the ‘Expert Meeting on Evaluation of general principles and criteria for nominations of natural World Heritage sites’. The paper concludes by noting the pragmatic necessity of defining ‘outstanding universal value’ as an extraordinary combination of the unique and the representative.     

文化景观的真实性与完整性

真实性与完整性是提名遗产地能否列入《世界遗产名录》的重要条件,文化景观遗产作为"自然与人的共同作品",其真实性完整性呈现出与其它遗产不同的特点。研究相关国际论著成果及国际古迹遗址理事会对文化景观遗产的评估报告,分析《世界遗产名录》中各类文化景观特征各异的真实性与完整性,对文化景观保护具有一定的参考意义。     

The concept of ‘outstanding universal value’ in the World Heritage Convention

Abstract

The basic criterion for inclusion of a property on the World Heritage List is that of ‘outstanding universal value’, as defined in the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention. The paper demonstrates the problems encountered in attempting to apply the concept of universality to material culture; this is reflected in the cultural and regional imbalances in the present List. It is recommended that there be a moratorium on the addition of further properties already well represented on the List and that active steps be taken to include types of cultural property and geocultural regions that are currently underrepresented, such as industrial heritage, cultural landscapes and nonmonumental cultures.     

The rise of cultural landscapes

The new interest in cultural landscapes is forcing a reappraisal of concepts of countryside heritage. First the traditional split between cultural and natural values is challenged. Second, modern landscape studies emphasise the subjectivity of landscape assessment, and this is subverting the former tendency to aspire to objectivity in evaluation. The acceptance of ‘associative’ value in landscape is an indicator of this. Modern landscape studies also emphasise the interrelationships between processes and aspects of value, and this is encouraging specialists to communicate across disciplinary frontiers. The desire by ecologists in the mid‐1980s to have cultural landscapes inscribed on the World Heritage list caused a re‐assessment of the World Heritage Criteria, and an initiative by ICOMOS brought this process to a conclusion in 1992. However the reappraisal of concepts of countryside value imply that there are many other philosophical and practical matters still to be resolved.     

World Heritage List: does it make sense?

The UNESCO World Heritage List contains the 900 most treasured sites of humanity's culture and landscapes. This List is beneficial where heritage sites are undetected, disregarded by national decision‐makers, not commercially exploitable, and where national financial resources, political control, and technical knowledge for conservation are inadequate. Alternatives such as market and national conservation lists are more beneficial where the cultural and natural sites are already popular, markets work well, and where inclusion in the List does not raise the destruction potential by excessive tourism, and in times of war, or by terrorists.     

A Framework for Sustainable Heritage Management: A Study of UK Industrial Heritage Sites

In 2002, the World Heritage Committee declared heritage to be ‘an instrument for the sustainable development of all societies’. The term ‘sustainable development’, however, is inscribed with a complex economic, environmental and social agenda that challenges contemporary World Heritage management practice. This paper draws on a content analysis of six industrial UK World Heritage Site management plans. The analysis focuses on the extent that each plan integrates four key sustainability dimensions. Findings indicate that the planning frameworks and collaboration processes in operation at each site ensure conservation of the historical physical fabric but limit the development of a sustainable local cultural economy. A sustainable heritage management framework is presented based on the adoption of a long‐term strategic orientation and extensive local community participation in decision making. The framework is relevant to other complex heritage sites such as historic towns and cultural landscapes.     

Community,Connection and Conservation: Intangible Cultural Values in Natural Heritage—the Case of Shirakami‐sanchi World Heritage Area

Intangible cultural heritage, according to a UNESCO definition, is ‘the practices, representations, expressions as well as the knowledge and skills that communities, groups and in some cases individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage’. Using a case study of Shirakami‐sanchi World Heritage Area, this paper illustrates how the local community's conservation commitment was formed through their long‐term everyday interactions with nature. Such connectivity is vital to maintaining the authentic integrity of a place that does not exclude humans. An examination of the formation of the community's conservation commitment for Shirakami reveals that it is the community's spiritual connection and place‐based identity that have supported conservation, leading to the World Heritage nomination, and it is argued that the recognition of such intangible cultural heritage is vital in conservation. The challenge, then, is how to communicate such spiritual heritage today. Forms of community involvement are discussed in an attempt to answer this question.     

关注遗产保护的新动向:文化景观

文化景观这一概念在景观生态学、文化地理学、人类生态学等学科中历史悠久,并被广泛应用。作为世界遗产体系中的文化景观,是人与自然相互作用的杰作,在二十世纪九十年代刚刚出现,但它已经成为遗产保护和利用领域中的热点。文化景观概念可以更好地理解遗产保护中的真实性和完整性原则,其重点在于保护人与自然互动的过程和产物,涉及到空间过程与土地利用、地形、水文、植被、交通、细部结构与装饰、健康与环境等方面。在中国倡导文化景观这一概念对于整个遗产的保护、生态的维系、文化的延续、旅游的开发、经济的发展都具有十分重要的作用。     

The Contested Landscapes of World Heritage on a Tourist Island: the case of Garajonay National Park,La Gomera

This paper considers the World Heritage Site of Garajonay National Park on the island of La Gomera (Canary Islands). It is based on a research project carried out during 1999-2000 that explored the circumstances surrounding its declaration as a National Park and inclusion into the World Heritage List, in conjunction with the consequences for local communities which ensued. The proximity of Garajonay National Park to a large concentration of mass coastal tourism constitutes a further source of potential conflict which may have a wider relevance to other sites of a similar and indeed diverse nature. This paper, therefore, examines the configurations of space and social relations occasioned by the processes of social change, conservation and tourism development in and adjacent to this protected forest. In doing so it elucidates the manner in which these processes are locally mediated in and through contested values over the meaning and purpose of nature conservation in this 'world heritage space'. It argues that a sense of the forest as a place of cultural belonging has been marginalised in favour of its intrinsic ecological value.     

Zanzibar Stone Town Joins the Imagined Community of World Heritage Sites

In 2000, Zanzibar Stone Town was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List after a long campaign whose start date may be taken as 1988. In view of the difficulties, one might ask why places such as Zanzibar should undertake such initiatives. Without recognition from UNESCO the Stone Town would be under pressure to approve developments that would change the character of this historic centre, and could make it difficult to develop tourism, but this is not the only reason. This paper argues that the supporters of Zanzibar's application to UNESCO were responding to a message that they detected in the formulation of the World Heritage Convention, namely that designated sites belong to a kind of international body which may be likened to an 'imagined community'. World Heritage Sites (WHSs) are, in theory, part of global heritage and are thus subject to the policies and laws of an international order. In reality, however, international legislation is notoriously difficult to implement without the support of the states concerned and it may be more useful to think of WHSs as an 'Imagined Community' in Anderson's sense, a kind of pre-state entity.     

大运河作为文化线路的认识与分析

中国的大运河一直是炎黄子孙所珍视的文化遗产。近年来的申遗热,更促使学界将大运河纳入世界遗产的范畴之中进行全新的认识与研究,同时国际重要的遗产研究团体也对大运河这一特殊案例给予了多方关注。当前学界对于大运河遗产的特点与价值等重点专题都展开了热烈地探讨,但与世界遗产理论体系并没有充分地接轨。因此,有必要从世界遗产体系中已有的相关文件在对大运河价值评估中产生的问题出发,探索"文化线路"对于大运河特质识别和价值研究的理论指导,从而发掘出对大运河遗产的新认识。     

The social production of ‘attractive authenticity’ at the World Heritage Site of Røros,Norway

This paper examines how authenticity and its use as a way of conceptualising the past participates in processes of heritage production, which are here defined as both the social construction of heritage sites and the uses of heritage sites as resources to achieve social goals. We argue that the social production of place and the social values generated by place are linked by a common approach based on the use of ‘place attraction’ as a unifying social concept. The World Heritage Site of Røros has as an attractive place become a resource for the production of cultural capital among various stakeholders, taking the form of a large body of ‘heritage knowledges’. However, a symbolic capital production of ‘attractive authenticity’ has today generated an idealised past and a purified iconic image of Røros as World Heritage. The discourse of ‘attractive authenticity’ reveals a conflict of interests where symbolic capital unfolds and makes power relations evident. This exposes a discussion about cultural heritage management practices at World Heritage Sites.     

Conservation of the sacred at Angkor Wat: further reflections on living heritage

Abstract

This article reflects on and complements the paper 'Conservation of a “living heritage site”: a contradiction in terms? A case study of Angkor World Heritage Site', published by Keiko Miura Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 7(1), (2005) 3–18. It develops further the notion of conserving sacred heritage in the light of a case study of Angkor Wat within the World Heritage site. Heritage management is always a balance between preserving different values – historic, aesthetic, use, spiritual, etc. Each of these categories of value has its own set of needs which are often not fully compatible with one another. Heritage management originally stemmed from the desire to protect the aesthetic and historic values of tangible heritage. Yet an over-emphasis on preserving these values alone is not tenable in a 'living heritage site'. At Angkor Wat it causes spiritual degradation and secularization. Highlighting instances in which this phenomenon has been apparent, this article suggests a way forward.     

Narratives of World Heritage in Travel Guidebooks

World Heritage Sites are among the most popular tourist destinations in the world and are, by UNESCO definition, exceptional heritage places. New visions of World Heritage encourage ideas of intercultural exchange and dialogues in the creation of these places. Thus it might be expected that cultural World Heritage Sites would be presented in ways that signal their ‘universal’ status. The article examines the portrayal of these sites in travel guidebooks, which are an acknowledged source of important influence on travellers. A study of travel guidebooks for various European nations showed that surprisingly few places are labelled as World Heritage even in the most comprehensive books. There is a gap between the ideals and what happens on the ground. While practical problems and lack of awareness may be one explanation for this, the inherent difficulties of conceiving and presenting narratives of world heritage as opposed to national, regional or local heritage may be more significant.     

Mixed world heritage in Scandinavian countries

UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention has become a global policy for natural and cultural conservation and in particular the intricate relation between the two. This article presents two cases, Laponia and the Lofoten Islands, put forward as mixed World Heritage Sites by the governments of Sweden and Norway. The overall national goals of the nominations have been to ensure sustainable human use of natural resources and the conservation of biodiversity. However, in both countries the nomination and implementation of mixed sites have produced a series of challenges at the municipality management level. Comparing the processes of promoting Laponia and Lofoten as World Heritage Sites, the article discusses the challenges of local involvement and democratic participation in national decision-making by asking what comprises local involvement and co-management at mixed World Heritage Sites. Why does the implementation of management at mixed World Heritage Sites create conflict between local stakeholders and the national governments of Norway and Sweden?     

World Heritage listing and changes of political values: a case study in West Lake Cultural Landscape in Hongzhou,China

World Heritage themes and frameworks, as well as the criteria for assessing the ‘outstanding universal values’ (OUV) of World Heritage sites, have been extensively criticised for being Eurocentric. Asia is a region of extraordinary levels of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity, which often comes into conflict with UNESCO understandings of heritage. Due to the influence of UNESCO, and the persuasiveness of the heritage discourses it authorises, Asian nations tend to utilise assessments and management ideologies that derive from a European viewpoint. This paper explores the changes in the political role of heritage during the process of World Heritage listing of a Chinese cultural heritage site, West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou. The study is based on three and a half months of fieldwork in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Firstly, I examine how the government officials and experts formulated the nomination dossier, and explore their purposes in seeking World Heritage listing and their understanding of heritage. In addition, tensions between governments’ understanding of the values of the site and those of UNESCO and ICOMOS will be mapped. Secondly, I examine how the Chinese government used the World Heritage ‘brand’ and policies to construct national and local narratives during and after the World Heritage listing. In this paper, I argue that both national and local governments are quite cynical about the listing process, in that they not only recognise they are playing a game, but that the game is ‘played’ under Eurocentric rules and terms. They know some Chinese values do not fit into UNESCO’s conception of ‘outstanding universal value’ (OUV), and they have ‘edited out’ those Chinese values, which could not be explained to Western experts, and utilised the discourses of international policy and expertise. Ultimately, these values and ‘rules’ frame the management of the sites to some extent, as the Chinese government must not, in order to maintain the WH listing, deviate too much from the rules of the game.     

Recognising values of China’s scenic and historic interest areas as world heritage cultural landscapes: Lushan case study

ABSTRACT

China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas are a major contributor to the State’s World Heritage lexicon. However, understanding of their values has led to confusion internationally and in China, not least with controversy over China’s latest promotion of the Natural Protected Areas System. This paper discusses values of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas from the cultural landscape perspective through an in-depth case study of Lushan. A theoretical framework for recognising values of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas has been set up and tested at Lushan, including exploring stakeholders’ understanding of its values as a world heritage site by using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The findings reveal that Lushan clearly represents cultural values inextricably associated with Scenic and Historic Interest Areas, and also need for supplementary advice on its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). It suggests that the ideology driving management of China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas as national parks or natural parks focusing mainly on objective nature-related conservation without regard to the traditional Chinese philosophy of the culture-nature binary will adversely affect China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas as cultural landscapes and their community values.