Future challenges for Australian and world interpretive methodology

Abstract

When Tilden wrote his book Heritage Interpretation in 1957 he could never have imagined the full extent of socio‐ecological challenges that would be facing humanity at the millennial dawn.This paper defines nine suggested challenge areas for world heritage interpretation and some of the issues that must be urgently addressed if interpretation is to remain a positive force for the survival of humanity and ecological systems.     

Two Models of Residential Conservation: communal life in an Australian box-ironbark forest

Grassroots community organisations offer simple ways of maintaining natural heritage values. Given the degradation of landscapes supporting fauna in many parts of the world, such organisations promise direct benefits for local communities and ecological biodiversity. Also, global warming, resulting in part from the removal of forest, will abate with the restoration of trees. The Bend of Islands (Victoria, Australia) boasts two organisations dedicated to the communal conservation of a landscape of remnant box-ironbark (eucalypt) forest. This woodland heritage is managed by residents to preserve its ecological values.The Round the Bend Conservation Co-operative (RBCC) is a land settlement co-operative. Members are committed to maintaining the local bushland in as natural a state as possible using minimal-impact environmental practices. The Bend of Islands Conservation Association (BICA) was established several years after the co-operative, but with the same environmental purpose. It covers a broader area, incorporating over 130 private land titles. This article describes the history and practices of RBCC and BICA and indicates their potential as models for the development of conservation principles and practices by other communities in similar landscapes.     

The natural and cultural landscape heritage of Northern Friesland

This article argues for an approach to environmental and heritage studies beyond a conceptual divide between nature and culture. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the case of the ongoing debate about the nomination of the Wadden Sea as a UNESCO Heritage Site gives insight into the complexity of attitudes towards the area in question, of widely differing perceptions and values. The focus on the detailed analysis of the controversies about the ‘Schleswig‐Holstein Wadden Sea’ National Park and the public debate in Northern Friesland about the UNESCO heritage highlights the political dimension of conservation strategies. Instead of recurring to the concepts of pure nature, pure culture and its relating marketing value, I propose to adapt the historically rooted concept of political landscape. Once a form of political organisation and practice in Northern Friesland, the concept of political landscape challenges the UNESCO heritage conception and offers new perspectives on conflicts between local population and nature conservation.