The UNESCO World Heritage Convention has become one of the most successful UN instruments for promoting cultural diplomacy and dialogue on conservation of cultural and natural heritage. This book ...provides an overview of the convention through an interdisciplinary approach to conservation. It shows that based on the notion of outstanding universal value and international co-operation for the protection of heritage, the convention provides a platform for sustainable development through the conservation and management of heritage of significance to humanity. With increasing globalization of heritage, World Heritage Conservation is reviewed as an emerging interdisciplinary field of study creating new opportunities for inclusive heritage debate both locally and globally, requiring common tools and understanding. With over a thousand properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, from biologically diverse sites such as the Central Amazon Conservation Complex to the urban landscape of the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, this book will help students, researchers and professionals in the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of World Heritage. Targeted at a diversity of disciplines, the book critically describes the strategies for implementing the convention and the processes of heritage governance for sustainable development.
This open access book identifies various forms of heritage destruction and analyses their causes. It proposes strategies for avoiding and solving conflicts, based on integrating heritage into the ...2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It reflects on the identity-building role of heritage, on multidimensional conflicts and the destruction of heritage, and considers conflict-solving strategies and future perspectives. Furthermore, it engages theoretically and practically with the concepts of responsibility, reconciliation and sustainability, relating mainly to four Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. SDGs 4 (education), 11 (e.g. World Heritage), 13 (climate action) and 17 (partnerships for the goals). More than 160 countries have inscribed properties on the UNESCO World Heritage list since the World Heritage Convention came into force. Improvements in the implementation of the Convention, such as the Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List, have occurred, but other conflicts have not been solved. The book advocates for a balanced distribution of properties and more effective strategies to represent the global diversity of cultural and natural heritage. Furthermore it highlights the importance of heritage in identity building.
The UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) comprise core conservation areas supported by a buffer and transition zone of sustainable development. This zoning can help manage urbanisation around conservation ...areas. Although it is UNESCO policy to measure the number of BRs that have interactions with urban areas, there has been no systematic assessment of urban biospheres since 2008. This research addresses this deficit by measuring the extent of urbanisation of all designated BRs within the European Union (EU). Using the Copernicus Urban Atlas, the proximity of BRs to Functional Urban Areas (FUA) was determined. The results show that 46% (76/167) of BRs are situated within FUAs, including 11% (18/167) entirely within an FUA. The majority (64%) of EU-28 countries have BRs within FUAs. Urban influences on EU-28 BRs are extensive, as 90% are found within 50 km of an FUA. However, integration with urban areas may be lacking as 14% of EU BRs were adjacent to an FUA. Urban pressures are acute for 11% of EU BRs which had multiple FUAs within a 50 km radius. Therefore, urbanisation of BRs is a widespread challenge and recommendations are provided for BRs to function as an information sharing network and develop a new urban strategy.
Managing World Heritage Negussie, Elene; Cave, Claire
World Heritage Conservation,
2018, 2016, 2017
Book Chapter
In line with the strategic objectives of the World Heritage Committee, sites should be managed through participatory approaches. Managing World Heritage sustainably should involve collaborating with ...stakeholders in decision-making throughout the management process. Recognition of local knowledge, pre-existing governance systems and the wide range of values associated with a place should facilitate long-term management and conservation of OUV. This chapter discusses the factors and practices that assist in securing an effective and sustainable management approach. Adaptive management emerged from the ecological sciences in recognition of the complexity and variability of ecosystem processes and functions. A toolkit for assessing management effectiveness for natural World Heritage sites emerged from the WCPA framework as part of a project run by IUCN and UNESCO and funded by the UN Foundation. The importance of financial stability for World Heritage properties is recognized in the text of the convention, in the Operational Guidelines and in the procedures for periodic reporting.
Defining World Heritage Negussie, Elene; Cave, Claire
World Heritage Conservation,
2018, 2016, 2017
Book Chapter
World Heritage entails the i.e. that certain cultural and natural heritage sites are of outstanding universal value (OUV) and of importance to humanity as a whole and thus its protection is the duty ...of the international community. This chapter explores the criteria, conditions and factors that determine World Heritage designation, including review of specific categories such as mixed sites, cultural landscapes, serial and transboundary sites. It also explores World Heritage as a socially constructed process, incorporating both consensus and contested interpretations of what constitutes heritage. Understanding heritage as a social construction emerged primarily from the disciplines of human and social sciences and has become widely accepted in cultural heritage theory, particularly for its revealing of the power structures at work in heritage narratives. Cultural heritage conservation has developed into a modern international movement in which organizations such as ICOMOS and UNESCO play an important norm-setting role in defining and updating conservation thought and practice.
Governing World Heritage Negussie, Elene; Cave, Claire
World Heritage Conservation,
2018, 2016, 2017
Book Chapter
With the expanding role of World Heritage sites as platforms for sustainable development, in which integrated conservation of culture and nature is recognized as key to achieving resilient societies, ...the number of stakeholders concerned has grown along with new demands for transparency and participation. This chapter presents key actors and organizations involved in governing World Heritage, seeking to determine whether participatory frameworks are successful. It demonstrates a complex web of stakeholders involved in lengthy processes shaped by power dynamics and competing interests, ranging from environmental lobbyists to natural resource extractors. Good governance is a prerequisite for sustainable development. This principle was built into the early action programmes on sustainable development that emerged from the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 in 1992. Attempts have been made to link principles of good governance in environmental conservation and heritage management.
Towards a holistic approach Negussie, Elene; Cave, Claire
World Heritage Conservation,
2018, 2016, 2017
Book Chapter
The success of the World Heritage Convention in inviting all the nations of the world to collaborate on the conservation of a global heritage has been conducive to understanding links between culture ...and the natural world. As ideas about what constitutes the 'common heritage of humanity' evolve, the processes of international conservation continue to shape conservation practice and heritage management, not least in regard to the questions of 'whose heritage', 'who decides' and 'for what purpose'. Conservation can offer the holistic approach that is needed to safeguard natural and man-made heritage within the broader remit of sustainable development. Holistic conservation requires a re-evaluation of the uses of heritage together with the broader landscape so that, in managing the whole, the altered landscape also plays a vital role in nurturing heritage conservation. Holistic conservation raises the question of how much should humans interfere in the protection of cultural and natural heritage.
The concept of sustainable development has emerged in response to the resulting environmental concerns and it is promoted across the globe as a means to address the vastly complex environmental and ...societal problems in an equitable and integrated fashion for both current and future generations. This chapter provides a contextual background to the World Heritage Convention and outlines the historical background and the shift towards the concept of a heritage of humanity. The role of World Heritage in the context of sustainable development is considered as well as the question of what sustainable development means in practice. Debate and definitions of sustainable development have initially rested on three dimensions: the economic, the environmental and the social. The chapter also explores UNESCO, the United Nations (UN) System and the role of other conventions that are linked to the World Heritage Convention in conservation and sustainable development.
Using World Heritage Negussie, Elene; Cave, Claire
World Heritage Conservation,
2018, 2016, 2017
Book Chapter
The World Heritage Convention stipulated the need for states parties to adopt policy 'which aims to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the ...protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programmes'. World Heritage designation may either support or alter the sustainability path of heritage sites depending on how uses are managed. This chapter explores different uses of World Heritage sites. It examines some issues which includes how sustainable use is defined, the two-sided impact of tourism on sites, use of World Heritage status and communication, overuse and the role of local communities in maintaining living heritage and place identity. In 2011, UNESCO adopted the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) in response to the need for a holistic approach to urban conservation and recognition by the World Heritage Committee that decisions concerning urban sites require a special approach due to the dynamic nature of cities.
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