1st Edition

World Heritage Concepts, Management and Conservation

By Simon C. Woodward, Louise Cooke Copyright 2023
    250 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    250 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    World Heritage: Concepts, Management and Conservation presents an insight into discussions and debates surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the properties on it.

    Since its creation 50 years ago, the World Heritage Convention has been lauded as one of the most successful international expressions of cooperation, whilst at the same time being widely criticised as producing an overly commercialised and globalised sense of heritage. Offering an in-depth discussion of both sides of the debate, this book explores these issues by discussing the following topics:

    • How the World Heritage Convention was conceived and how it is operationalised;

    • How the World Heritage concept is currently being used and misused;

    • The benefits of inscription – perceived and actual existential threats faced by World Heritage Site managers including climate change, urban development, overtourism, military action and natural disaster;

    • The future of World Heritage as an instrument for conservation and economic development.

    Case studies from a global range of World Heritage Sites are included throughout, to showcase some of the successes and also missuses of World Heritage status.

    This book will be of pivotal interest to students and scholars in the fields of tourism, heritage, archaeology, natural resource management and development studies.

    Introduction

    1. The Invention of World Heritage
      1. A Brief History of Heritage Protection in the 19th Century
      2. Cultural Heritage Protection in the 20th Century
      3. Protecting National Heritage in the 20th Century
      4. The World Heritage Convention
      5. Filling the Gaps
        1. Redefining ‘Heritage’ to be More Internationally Inclusive
        2. A Global Strategy to ‘Level-Up’ the List
        3. Acknowledging Intangible Heritage
        4. Introducing Cultural Landscapes

      6. Summing Up

    2. Implementing the World Heritage Convention
      1. Operational Guidelines
        1. Who is Involved?
        2. The Process: Nomination and Inscription
        3. Defining the Boundaries
        4. The Management Plan
        5. Monitoring the State of Conservation
        6. Understanding the Relationship Between Inscription and Other Designations

      2. Emerging Trends in Inscription
        1. Transboundary Properties
        2. Serial Nominations
        3. Transnational Serial Nominations

      3. The Politicisation of Decision Making
      4. Conclusion

    3. World Heritage as an Instrument of International Politics
      1. Introduction
      2. Embedding Complexity Within World Heritage Inscription
      3. Mixed Messages – Responses to Heritage Destruction
      4. Responses to Ongoing Conflict
      5. Wider Politics at Play within World Heritage
      6. Conclusion

    4. Managing Major Threats to Cultural and National Heritage Sites
      1. Introduction
      2. Planning for, and Responding to, Natural Disaster
      3. Changing Approaches to Disaster Risk Management
      4. Politics of Disaster
      5. Conclusion

    5. Urbanisation and Development
      1. Introduction
      2. Urban Pressures
      3. The Historic Urban Landscape
      4. Concluding Remarks

    6. World Heritage and Climate Change
      1. Introduction
      2. What is Climate Change?
      3. Climate Change and Cultural Properties
        1. Impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Properties
        2. Responding to these Challenges

      4. Climate Change and Natural Heritage
        1. Terrestrial Natural Heritage
        2. Marine Natural Heritage

      5. Engaging Communities in Tackling the Causes and Impacts of Climate Change at Heritage Properties
      6. Conclusion

    7. Managing Threats to Marine Heritage Sites and Protected Areas
      1. Introduction
      2. Development Pressures
      3. Disturbance to Species
      4. Pollution of Marine Areas
        1. Pollution Flowing Downriver and Out to Sea
        2. Marine Plastics
        3. Waste Discharges at Sea

      5. Managing Marine Heritage Sites – Best Practice

    8. Benefits of World Heritage Site Status
      1. Introduction
      2. Civic Pride and Social Capital
      3. Learning and Education
        1. UNESCO’s Own Education Initiatives for World Heritage
        2. Volunteering as a Tool for Increasing Engagement with World Heritage

      4. Tourism
      5. Regeneration
      6. Concluding Remarks

    9. Managing Tourism Pressures at WHS
      1. Introduction
      2. Visitor Impacts on Natural Heritage Sites
        1. Introduction
        2. Pollution and Littering
        3. Damage to Vegetation
        4. Spreading Alien Species
        5. Disturbance to Wildlife

      3. Visitor Impacts on Cultural Heritage Properties
        1. Opening Comments
        2. Accidental Damage/Wear and Tear
        3. Change to Micro-climate
        4. Dust
        5. Littering
        6. Theft of Artefacts, Building Fabric
        7. Graffiti, Vndalism and Other Deliberate Damage

      4. Tourism Pressures in Historic Towns and Cities
        1. Introduction
        2. Traffic Management
        3. Walking Tours in Historic Cities

      5. Key Concepts in Visitor Management Planning
      6. Summing up

    10. Presenting and Interpreting World Heritage
      1. Introduction
      2. The Ename Charter
      3. Presenting and Interpreting World Heritage
        1. The Conventional View of Heritage Interpretation
        2. Critiques of Tilden
        3. ‘Hot’ Interpretation
        4. Uses of Interpretation
        5. Interpretation as a Tool of Soft Visitor Management
        6. Hard Visitor Management
        7. Interpretation as Propaganda
        8. Adding Value Through Interpretation

      4. Delivering Effective Interpretation
      5. Interpretive Tools
        1. Introduction
        2. Reconstructions as an Interpretive Tool
        3. The Tour Guide

      6. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: An Introduction
      7. Applications of AR and VR in Presenting and Interpreting World Heritage
        1. Introduction
        2. Offsite use of AR and VR
        3. Onsite use of AR and VR
        4. Routes and Tours
        5. Games

      8. Concluding Remarks

    11. World Heritage and Sustainable Development Goals
      1. Introduction
      2. The Heritage Sector and Sustainability
      3. A Short History of Global Efforts to Promote Sustainable Development
        1. 1972 UN Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development
        2. 1987 Brundtland Report
        3. 1992 Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 21
        4. 1997 UNWTO, WTTC and Earth Council Response to Agenda 21
        5. 1999 Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
        6. 2000 Millenium Declaration and the MDGs
        7. 2002 Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development and the First International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations in Cape Town
        8. 2007 UNWTO Davos Declaration
        9. 2012 Rio+20
        10. 2015 UN Sustainable Development Summit, New York

      4. WHS as Vectors for Sustainable Development
      5. Case Studies of Using WHS Management Activities to Support the SDGs
        1. SDG 1: No Poverty
        2. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
        3. SDG 13: Climate Action

      11.6: Concluding Remarks on World Heritage and the SDGs

    12. What of the Future?
      1. Introduction
      2. The Future of Heritage Protection
      3. Decolonising Heritage and Shifting Narratives
      4. External Challenges for World Heritage Sites
      5. Utilising New Technologies to Manage, Present and Interpret World Heritage
      6. Concluding Remarks

    Biography

    Simon C. Woodward is a Geographer by training and Principal Lecturer in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management at Leeds Beckett University where he teaches on both the undergraduate and postgraduate tourism management programmes, specialising in cultural and heritage tourism; destination development and business management. Prior to joining the University in 2008, he spent 20 years as a full-time management consultant to the global heritage tourism sector, working in many developed and emerging destinations in the Middle East; East, West and Southern Africa and in Western Europe, including the UK. Simon has a particular interest in developing and managing community-based heritage.

    Louise Cooke is Senior Lecturer in Conservation in the Department of Archaeology at University of York, with interests in sustainability, historic buildings, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes. She has undertaken fieldwork in Central Asia and the Middle East and has a wide-ranging portfolio of freelance and project-based work overseas in the UEA, Peru and Turkey, as well as across the UK. She joined the Archaeology Department in York in 2016, further developing connections and research with South Asia. Louise has a particular interest in creative responses to heritage management and conservation in a changing climate.