World Heritage: Concepts, Management and Conservation

Description

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. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The invention of World Heritage 1.1 A brief history of heritage protection in the 19th century 1.2 Cultural heritage protection in the 20th century 1.3 Protecting natural heritage in the 20th century 1.4 The World Heritage Convention 1.5 Filling the gaps 1.6 Summing up 2. Implementing the World Heritage Convention 2.1 Operational Guidelines 2.2 Emerging trends in inscription 2.3 The politicisation of decision making 2.4 Conclusion 3. World Heritage as an instrument of international politics 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Embedding complexity within World Heritage inscription 3.3 Mixed messages – responses to heritage destruction 3.4 Responses to ongoing conflict 3.5 Wider politics at play within World Heritage 3.6 Conclusion 4. Managing major threats to cultural and natural heritage sites 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Planning for, and responding to, natural disaster 4.3 Changing approaches to disaster risk management 4.4 Politics of disaster 4.5 Conclusion 5. Urbanisation and development 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Urban pressures 5.3 The Historic Urban Landscape 5.4 Concluding remarks 6. World Heritage and climate change 6.1 Introduction 6.2 What is climate change? 6.3 Climate change and cultural properties 6.4 Climate change and natural heritage 6.5 Engaging communities in tackling the causes and impacts of climate change at heritage properties 6.6 Conclusion 7. Managing threats to marine heritage sites and protected areas 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Development pressures 7.3 Disturbance to species 7.4 Pollution of marine areas 7.5 Managing marine heritage sites – best practice 8. Benefits of World Heritage Site status 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Civic pride and social capital 8.3 Learning and education 8.4 Tourism 8.5 Regeneration 8.6 Concluding remarks 9. Managing tourism pressures at WHS 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Visitor impacts on natural heritage sites 9.3 Visitor impacts on cultural heritage properties 9.4 Tourism pressures in historic towns and cities 9.5 Key concepts in visitor management planning 9.6 Summing up 10. Presenting and interpreting World Heritage 10.1 Introduction 10.2 The Ename Charter 10.3 Presenting and interpreting World Heritage 10.4 Delivering effective interpretation 10.5 Interpretive tools 10.6 Augmented reality and virtual reality: an introduction 10.7 Applications of AR and VR in presenting and interpreting World Heritage 10.8 Concluding remarks 11. World Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals 11.1 Introduction 11.2 The heritage sector and sustainability 11.3 A short history of global efforts to promote sustainable development 11.4 WHS as vectors for sustainable development 11.5 Case studies of using WHS management activities to support the SDGS 11.6 Concluding remarks on World Heritage and the SDGs 12. What of the future? 12.1 Introduction 12.2 The future of heritage protection 12.3 Decolonising heritage and shifting narratives 12.4 External challenges for World Heritage Sites 12.5 Utilising new technologies to manage, present and interpret World Heritage 12.6 Concluding remarks Index