Papers: Cultural Landscapes: The Challenges of Conservation
Papers: Cultural Landscapes: The Challenges of Conservation
Papers: Cultural Landscapes: The Challenges of Conservation
papers
Ferrara - Italy
Ferrara - Italy
Hosted by the Province of Ferrara and the City of Ferrara Organized by the University of Ferrara and UNESCOs World Heritage Centre in collaboration with ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN With the support of the Nordic World Heritage Foundation (NWHF) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences (OCenW)
Disclaimer
The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of the facts contained in this publication and for the opinions therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. The designation employed and the presentation of the material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
Preface
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, UNESCO with the support of the Government of Italy, organized, from 14 to 16 November 2002, an International Congress to reflect on some of the main issues, achievements and challenges of the World Heritage mission. Over 600 experts from around the world gathered at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the island of San Giorgio in Venice, Italy, to discuss the evolution of the World Heritage Convention and consider its role for the future. In addition, some 400 experts gathered immediately prior to the Congress at nine associated workshops in different Italian cities to reflect on the major themes of the Congress. The nine workshops were: The Legal Tools for World Heritage Conservation, Siena Cultural Landscapes: the Challenges of Conservation, Ferrara Towards Innovative Partnerships for World Heritage, Venice Partnerships for World Heritage Cities, Urbino-Pesaro Monitoring World Heritage, Vicenza Partnerships to Conserve Nature and Biodiversity, Trieste World Heritage University Training, Feltre World Heritage Site Management, Padua Mobilizing Youth for World Heritage, Treviso This publication aims to reflect the discussions and debates around the specific themes as they were discussed over the two days of the workshop. The summary reports of each workshop are also available in the Congress proceedings publication.
Prelude
Cultural Landscapes became one of the hot topics during the past years of World Heritage work and beyond. They represent the combined works of man and nature. Moreover they are the places of peoples livelihoods, identities and belief systems all over the world. The Ferrara workshop Cultural Landscapes : the Challenges of Conservation brought all those themes together and much more. Experts from around the world had the opportunity to talk about key cultural landscape issues likely to direct overall strategies for the next ten years. They not only celebrated the concept, but also reviewed the implementation and the everyday management challenges of these complex sites. Cultural landscapes have been rendered more biologically diverse through human intervention over centuries. They are the foundations of food production systems and living gene banks for the food crops of tomorrow. These areas are home to local populations and indigenous groups, and are rich in cultural diversity and intangible values, to be conserved as a whole for a sustainable future. The workshop was organized jointly by the City and the Province of Ferrara, in a collaborative effort of the University of Ferrara and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The strong commitment of the authorities to cultural landscape conservation can be seen with the establishment of the Ferrara Centre for Cultural Landscapes at the occasion of the workshop. This publication brings together the papers and discussions of the workshop. The conclusions and the summary report are presented in English and French. We hope these will be well received by a broad audience and will provide a sound basis for future actions by stakeholders in all regions on earth.
Table of Contents
Preface Francesco Bandarin Prelude Paolo Ceccarelli and Mechtild Rssler Taking Stock Ten Years After: Cultural Landscapes in the Framework of The World Heritage Convention
Linking Nature and Culture: World Heritage Cultural Landscapes Mechtild Rssler World Heritage Cultural Landscapes, 1992-2002: a Review and Prospect Peter Fowler Training Challenges in the Management of Heritage Territories and Landscapes Katri Lisitzin and Herb Stovel Cultural Landscapes: Evaluating the Interaction Between People and Nature Carmen An Feliu Cultural Landscapes: IUCNs Changing Vision of Protected Areas Adrian Phillips International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Arno Schmid
Page 10 Page 16 Page 33 Page 37 Page 40 Page 3 Page 5
Page 50
2
Page 52 Page 55 Page 60 Page 68
Latin America/Caribbean
Cultural Landscapes and the Challenges of Conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean Elias J. Mujica Use and Management of Cultural Landscapes in Mexico Sal Alcntara Onofre
Page 82 Page 89
North America
Cultural Landscape Management Challenges and Promising New Directions in the United States and Canada Susan Buggey and Nora Mitchell Cultural Landscape Conservation Experiences in Canada Meryl Olivier
Page 92
Page 101
Asia-Pacific
Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park: Sustainable Management and Development Graeme Calma and Lynette Liddle Values as the Basis for Management of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes Jane Lennon Conservation of Cultural Landscapes in Asia and the Pacific Region Terraced Rice Fields and Sacred Mountains Makoto Motonaka
Page 104 Page 120 Page 127
Africa
Smart Partnerships: Cultural Landscape Issues in Africa Dawson Munjeri Sukur Cultural Landscape of Nigeria: A Challenge to Conservation Management Joseph Eboreime Cultural landscapes: Is the World Bank a Relevant Funding Partner? Lessons learned by the Nordic World Heritage Foundation (NWHF) in Sub-Saharan Africa Synnve Vinsrygg
Page 134 Page 144
Page 147
3
Page 150 Page 156
4
Page 160 Page 172
Annexes
Annex 1: List of Participants Annex 2: European Landscape Convention Annex 3: Paestum Charta Annex 4: Photographs from the Workshop and Field Trip
Page 186 Page 189 Page 190 Page 191
Taking Stock Ten Years After: Cultural Landscapes in the Framework of the World Heritage Convention
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The most easily identifiable is the clearly defined landscape designed and created intentionally by man. This embraces garden and parkland landscapes constructed for aesthetic reasons which are often (but not always) associated with religious or other monumental buildings and ensembles. The second category is the organically evolved landscape. This results from an initial social, economic, administrative, and/or religious imperative and has developed its present form by association with and in response to its natural environment. Such landscapes reflect that process of evolution in their form and component features. They fall into two sub-categories: a relict (or fossil) landscape is one in which an evolutionary process came to an end at some time in the past, either abruptly or over a period. Its significant distinguishing features are, however, still visible in material form. a continuing landscape is one which retains an active social role in contemporary society closely associated with the traditional way of life, and in which the evolutionary process is still in progress. At the same time it exhibits significant material evidence of its evolution over time. The final category is the associative cultural landscape. The inclusion of such landscapes on the World Heritage List is justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent.
(ii)
(iii)
World Heritage cultural landscapes are justified for inclusion in the World Heritage List when interactions between people and the natural environment are evaluated as being of outstanding universal value. Cultural landscapes are inscribed on the List on the basis of the cultural heritage criteria. A number of World Heritage cultural landscapes have also been inscribed on the basis of natural
criteria and are therefore also mixed cultural and natural properties. Since 1992, thirty cultural landscapes have been inscribed on the World Heritage List (Table 2) a detailed analysis of this situation has been carried out by Fowler (see his paper in this volume).
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Hallstatt-Dachstein Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape Wachau Cultural Landscape Cultural Landscape of Fert/Neusiedlersee Viales Valley Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes Pyrnes - Mont Perdu Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wrlitz Upper Middle Rhine Valley Hortobgy National Park Tokaji Wine Region Cultural Landscape Costiera Amalfitana Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)
Australia Austria Austria Austria and Hungary Cuba Cuba Czech Republic France France France and Spain Germany Germany Hungary Hungary Italy Italy
(i)(iii)
11
Cultural Landscape
Country
Date of Inscription
Cultural Criteria
Natural Criteria
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape
Italy Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Lebanon Lithuania and Russian Federation Madagascar New Zealand Nigeria Philippines Poland Portugal Portugal Spain Sweden United Kingdom
1998
(iii)(iv)
2001 1998 2000 2001 1990/1993 1999 1995 1999 1995 2001 2001 2000 2000
(iii)(iv)(vi) (iii)(iv) (v) (iii)(iv)(vi) (vi) (iii)(v)(vi) (iii)(iv)(v) (ii)(iv) (ii)(iv)(v) (iii)(iv)(v) (ii)(iv) (iv)(v) (iii)(iv)
Ouadi Quadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab) Curonian Spit Royal Hill of Ambohimanga Tongariro National Park Sukur Cultural Landscape Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Architectural and Park Landscape Complex and Pilgrimage Park Cultural Landscape of Sintra Alto Douro Wine Region Aranjuez Cultural Landscape Agricultural Landscape of Southern land Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
(ii)(iii)
At the same session that the Committee adopted the cultural landscape categories, it decided to remove reference to mans interaction with his natural environment and to exceptional combinations of natural and cultural elements in natural criteria (ii) and (iii) respectively. As a result, since 1992 neither the natural nor the cultural criteria used to justify the inclusion of properties on the World Heritage List refer specifically to interactions between people and the environment.
and representative World Heritage List by encouraging countries to become States Parties to the Convention, to prepare tentative lists and to harmonize them, and to prepare nominations of properties from categories and regions currently not well represented on the World Heritage List. In the last few years a number of regional and thematic Global Strategy meetings have been organized by the World Heritage Centre, among them a number of global and regional expert meetings on cultural landscapes.
Global Strategy for a Representative and Credible World Heritage List (1994) Cultural Landscapes Expert Meetings
In June 1994, at the request of the World Heritage Committee, the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS organized an expert meeting to examine the representative nature of the World Heritage List and the methodology for its definition and implementation. The meeting was organized in response to perceived imbalances in the types of heritage included on the List and its regional representativity. A Global Strategy for a Representative and Credible World Heritage List was proposed at the meeting, and subsequently adopted by the World Heritage Committee at its 18th session in December 1994. The Global Strategy is both a conceptual framework and a pragmatic and operational methodology for implementing the World Heritage Convention. It relies on regional and thematic definitions of categories of heritage which have outstanding universal value, to ensure a more balanced In 1992 the Convention became the first international legal instrument to identify, protect, conserve and transmit to future generations cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value: At its 16th session the World Heritage Committee adopted categories of World Heritage cultural landscapes (see above) under the cultural criteria. For the purposes of World Heritage conservation, cultural landscapes embrace a diversity of interactions between people and the natural environment. At the International Expert Meeting on Cultural Landscapes of Outstanding Universal Value (Schorfheide, Germany, 1993) an Action Plan for the Future was prepared, which was adopted by the World Heritage Committee in December 1993. It recommended that regional expert meetings be held to assist with compara-
12
tive studies of cultural landscapes and that thematic frameworks be developed for the evaluation of cultural landscapes to assist the Committee in its decision-making concerning cultural landscapes. In this Action Plan, the preparation of Management Guidelines was indicated: that specific guidelines for the management of cultural landscapes, including both conservation and development, be incorporated in the existing Guidelines for the Management of World Heritage Properties taking into account successful management experiences. The Action Plan also asked for an exchange of information, case studies and management experiences on the level of regional and local communities for the protection of cultural landscapes between States Parties. Furthermore, it requested that expert groups and NGOs (ICOMOS, IUCN/CNPPA, IFLA, ILAA, IALE) be encouraged to promote a broader understanding of cultural landscapes and their potential for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Between 1992 and 2001, a total of fourteen expert meetings on cultural landscapes were organized. These meetings were milestones in the implementation of the decisions of the Committee by identifying different methods that States Parties might choose to use when nominating cultural landscapes for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Methodologies for identifying cultural landscapes were developed and suggestions made towards their classification and evaluation. Specific legal, management, socio-economic and conservation issues relating to cultural landscapes were also addressed and examples of outstanding cultural landscapes discussed, which illustrated the above-mentioned categories in the regions. Almost every meeting provided specific recommendations concerning the recognition, identification, protection and management of cultural landscapes in their specific thematic or regional context. Some of the expert meetings dealt specifically with agricultural landscapes, in particular the one on vineyard landscapes in Europe and on rice terraces in Asia. The expert meeting on European landscapes in 1996 stressed the importance of living cultural landscapes embodying past ways of life and having continuing relevance today, in the European context including rural landscapes and their development over time (for example in response to new technologies). The meeting in Bialystok (Poland) in 1999 recommended States Parties to extend the existing system of designation and management of protected areas to cultural landscapes with the guidance and assistance of UNESCO. In development processes, it was recommended that the potential of the cultural landscape should be strengthened by identifying and supporting specific qualities and characteristics of the region. It should be kept in mind that landscape management requires a vital local and regional economy. The experts also recommended that co-operation be established between responsible local, regional, national and international bodies and development actors; integration should be sought linking planning, financial and monitoring activities. This should be activated by the States Parties in implementing
the World Heritage Convention. This and other meetings therefore reviewed the issues related to specific techniques of sustainable land-use referred to in the Operational Guidelines (paragraph 38). The meeting on Andean cultural landscapes specifically recognized the Andes as one of the gene pools for agricultural diversity and made specific recommendations to governments for site protection. Some of the World Heritage cultural landscapes are also recognized for their biological diversity, including the designed landscapes, such as the Lednice-Valtice site in the Czech Republic. This 200 km_ landscape was the laboratory of the founder of modern genetics, G. Mendel, whose experimental gardens form part of the World Heritage site. Other issues raised at these meetings concerned the collaboration with other legal instruments such as the European Landscape Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
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1992, which prepared the cultural landscape categories adopted by the World Heritage Committee in December 1992. At the same time, the evaluation was based on scientific debates and approaches, forty years after the first international recommendation on the beauty and character of landscapes and sites adopted by UNESCO in 1962. It provided a critical background for future work and a basis for the recommendations of the Ferrara workshop to the Venice Congress in November 2002 to mark thirty years of the World Heritage Convention. The tools are at hand to pave the way for the future of this important concept and also to address the main issues which the site managers have to face on a daily basis.
References
Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO, 1972) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention Glossary of World Heritage Terms Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List
Conclusions
The World Heritage Convention became in 1992 the first international legal instrument to recognize and protect cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value. This opened the Convention to regions under-represented on the World Heritage List and gave new drive to the interpretation of heritage. Since 1993, numerous States Parties have identified potential candidates, included them in tentative lists and nominated landscape properties. They have contributed to ensuring that cultural landscapes receive appropriate recognition and conservation at the international level. We can therefore state: 1. It is a successful concept (in terms of level of application and regional distribution). 2. It is a concept, which is not fully applied for certain types of property (see paper by Peter Fowler) 3. New partnerships need to be developed towards integrated regional and sustainable development at the landscape level. 4. New concepts for enhanced legal protection need to be explored. 5. New approaches towards integrated management need to be developed. 6. Reflections are necessary towards building awareness of the concept of cultural landscapes in the World Heritage Committee and the general public. Cultural landscapes provide the basis for a genetic pool for the crops of tomorrows world. They are the basis of the culture, identity and beliefs of the people who live within them. They are the basis of long-term survival and integrated sustainable development in the region beyond the protected areas. Their inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List provided an important step towards the international recognition of this type of site, while encouraging national and regional authorities to enhance conservation and protection measures.
14
m 1999 WHC-99/CONF.204/INF.4 Synthetic Report of the Expert Meeting on Cultural Landscapes in Africa (Tiwi, Kenya, 1014 March 1999) Rapport synthtique de la runion dexperts sur les paysages culturels africains (Tiwi, Kenya, 1014 mars m 1999 WHC-99/CONF.204/INF.16 Synthesis Report of the Expert Meeting on Management Guidelines for Cultural Landscapes (Bansk Stiavnica, Slovakia, 14 June 1999) WHC-99/CONF.209/INF.14 Report on the Regional Thematic Expert Meeting on Cultural Landscapes in Eastern Europe (Bialystok, Poland, 29 September3 October 1999) m 1998 WHC-98/CONF.203/INF.8 Report of the Regional Thematic Meeting on Cultural Landscapes in the Andes (Arequipa/Chivay, Peru, 1722 May 1998) m 1997 WHC-97/CONF.208/INF.12 Preliminary draft European Landscape Convention m 1996 WHC-96/CONF.202/INF.10 Report on the Expert Meeting on European Cultural Landscapes of Outstanding Universal Value (Vienna, Austria, 21 April 1996) Rapport de la Runion dexperts sur les paysages culturels europens de valeur universelle exceptionnelle (Vienne, Autriche, 21 avril 1996) m 1995 WHC-95/CONF.203/INF.8 Asian Rice Culture and its Terraced Landscapes. Report of the regional thematic study meeting (Philippines, 28 March4 April 1995) WHC-95/CONF.203/INF.9 Report of the Asia-Pacific Workshop on Associative Cultural Landscapes (Australia, 2729 April 1995)
m 1994 WHC-94/CONF.003/INF.10 Information Document on Heritage Canals (Canada, September 1994) Document dinformation sur les Canaux du Patrimoine (Canada, septembre 1994) WHC-94/CONF.003/INF.13 Report on the Expert Meeting on Routes as Part of the Cultural Heritage (Spain, November 1994) Rapport de la Runion dExperts: Les Itinraires comme patrimoine culturel (Espagne, novembre 1994) m 1993 WHC-93/CONF.002/INF.4 Report of the International Expert Meeting on Cultural Landscapes of Outstanding Universal Value (Templin, Germany, 1217 October 1993) m 1992 WHC-92/CONF.202/10/Add Revision of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention: Report of the Expert Group on Cultural Landscapes (La Petite Pierre, France, 2426 October 1992) Rvision des Orientations pour la mise en oeuvre de la Convention du patrimoine mondial: Rapport du Groupe dexperts sur les paysages culturels (La Petite Pierre, France, 2426 octobre 1992)
PUBLICATIONS
VON DROSTE, B.; RSSLER, M.; TITCHEN, S. (eds.). Linking Nature and Culture, Report of the Global Strategy Natural and Cultural Heritage Expert Meeting, 25 to 29 March 1998, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Paris/The Hague, UNESCO/Ministry for Foreign Affairs/Ministry for Education, Science and Culture, 1999. 238 pp., English only. VON DROSTE, B.; PLACHTER, H.; RSSLER, M. (eds.). Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag, 1995. 464 pp., English only. Landscapes: the setting for our future lives. Naturopa, No. 96, 1998. Strasbourg, Council of Europe. English, French, German, Italian, Russian editions.
15
1. The review period was extended to 30 June 2002, thereby including the consideration of cultural landscapes at the 26th session of the World Heritage Committee in Budapest (Hungary). 2. This paper, almost entirely derived from Fowler, 2003. 3. The review (Fowler, 2003) will be published in 2003 by the World Heritage Centre, UNESCO. Its contents are given in Appendix A to this paper and a summary of its recommendations in Appendix B.
16
writings of German historians and French geographers in the mid/later nineteenth century. Cultural landscape as a term was apparently invented in academia in the early twentieth century. The term, and a particular idea it embraced, was promoted by Prof. Carl Sauer in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. It only came into accepted professional use in conservation circles in the 1990s (Jacques, 1995), not least through its adoption by the World Heritage Committee and its promulgation throughout the world by the World Heritage Centre (documented with references in Rssler, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001a; Rssler and Saouma-Forero, 2000; von Droste et al., 1995; Fowler, 2003). Though its use is now more widespread e.g. by politicians, it remains in general an uncommon term for an opaque concept (Kelly et al., 2001, passim). Definitions Sauers (1925) classic definition is: The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a culture group. Culture is the agent, the natural area the medium, the cultural landscape the result. Many other definitions have been adumbrated over the last decade (collected in Aitchison, 1995; Fowler, 2000, 2001). Parks Canada (2000) provides its own modern definition of a particular sort of cultural landscape, one extremely relevant to World Heritage in subject and close to the spirit of World Heritage itself: An Aboriginal cultural landscape is a place valued by an Aboriginal group (or groups) because of their long and complex relationship with that land. It expresses their unity with the natural and spiritual environment. It embodies their traditional knowledge of spirits places, land uses, and ecology. Outside World Heritage circles, academia has so far not commented much on the recent development of one of its own ideas as a major tool of international co-operation and conservation; but interest is rapidly increasing. Politically, a particularly stringent criticism recently came from the Secretariat General of the Council of Europe (Priore, 2001, p. 32). The critique obliquely describes the UNESCO approach as elitist, making artificial distinctions based on specific features regarded as indicative of an exceptional landscape. Correctly noting that the World Heritage concept involves selecting landscapes with an outstanding and universal quality, in a process where the adjective cultural is clearly intended to express a particular positive value, the comment then adds: The concept of landscape implied by the European Landscape Convention cannot welcome this approach because the main idea of the Convention is that the landscape must be recognized and protected independently from its value. It is a little difficult to know what that last clause means, not least because, in the last resort, protection must always depend to a degree on attributing a value to that which is to be protected.
In contrast, my own definition sees cultural landscape as the very opposite of elitist: By recognizing cultural landscapes, we have, almost for the first time, given ourselves the opportunity to recognize places that may well look ordinary but that can fill out in our appreciation to become extraordinary; and an ability of some places to do that creates monuments to the faceless ones, the people who lived and died unrecorded except unconsciously and collectively by the landscape modified by their labours. A cultural landscape is a memorial to the unknown labourer (Fowler, 2001, p. 77). The World Heritage Committee and Landscape UNESCO expressed an interest in and concern about landscape forty years ago (UNESCO, 1962). Certain themes to do with landscape can then be seen running consistently through the World Heritage Committees deliberations from around 1980; most are still on its agenda (documented in Fowler, 2003, Appendix A). There are repeated cries, often more generally but specifically in relation to cultural landscapes, for definitions, guidelines, thematic studies; for regional and thematic frameworks for the application of the Convention; for a more balanced and representative World Heritage List, and for ways of achieving this; for better communications, management, tentative lists; for co-operation, in the regions, on the ground, and between the Advisory Bodies and other NGOs, not least the better to advise the Committee; and for more from the Secretariat. Cultural landscapes tend to become rather mixed up with Global Strategy issues in the 1990s and then with the revision of the Operational Guidelines (von Droste et al., 1999; UNESCO, 1999). But then most of the above issues have been mixed up with revision of the Guidelines, proposed and actual, throughout the twenty years since 1982. Much of the Committees earlier and consistent interest in cultural landscapes and their predecessors was expressed in the 1993 Action Plan for the Future (Cultural Landscapes) (given in full in Fowler, 2003, Appendix A). Major issues the Committee is still concerned with are specified there: difficulties with tentative lists; the need to help States Parties in several ways, and for better communication both with them and between them; the need positively to promote cultural landscapes both generally and among States Parties, not least by encouraging reassessment of existing inscribed sites in the light of the new type of property; and the need for guidelines in the management of cultural landscapes. Such issues keep appearing in publications and at World Heritage meetings (e.g. Cleere, 1995; Hajs, 1999; MacInnes, 1999; Mitchell and Buggey, 2000).
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gardens with appropriate buildings of the designed type to be inscribed, although elements of the type, with both large parks, large and small gardens, and pseudo-military installations scattered over a range of hills, had been inscribed the previous year at Sintra, Portugal (fig. I). Category (ii) The second category of organically evolved landscape, as expected, is already proving to be the most popular type, with continuing cultural landscapes comprising over 50%. Perhaps contrary to first expectations, the concept of fossil (and please can we drop this word in this context?) or relict landscape is proving in practice to be a little illusory, as closer inspection of some landscapes which were thought to be examples turn out to be still continuing. The gold standard for the continuing cultural landscape was fortunately set early on by the inscription of the rice terraces of the Cordilleras, Philippines (Villalon, 1995), now sadly but predictably placed on the World Heritage Committees List of World Heritage in Danger. Category (iii) The third category allows for the expression in landscape terms of the idea underlying cultural criterion (vi); but it was expected that it would be used only rarely, and such has so far proved to be the case. The original example, Tongariro (New Zealand), again set such a high standard but nevertheless in a context which non-indigenous people could appreciate that extreme care is being taken with further claimants. Few could argue, however, with the two other numinous inscriptions in the third category of cultural landscape, Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Australia (fig. II; Layton and Titchen, 1995), and Sukur, Nigeria.
Category (i) Lednice-Valtice in the Czech Republic was the first unmistakable example a single large set-piece formal park and
Table 1. Analysis of Criteria used in Inscribing Official World Heritage Cultural Landscapes
State Party Site (i) Australia Austria Austria/Hungary Cuba Czech Republic France France/Spain Germany Hungary Italy Uluru Hallstatt-Dachstein Wachau Fert/Neusiedlersee Viales Coffee Plantations Lednice-Valtice Saint-Emilion Loire Mont Perdu Dessau-Wrlitz Rhine Hortobgy Tokaji Amalfitana Cinque Terre Cilento (ii) (iii) Criteria (iv) (v) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + (vi) + Total 2a 2 2 1 2 2 3 2 3 3b 2 3 2 2 3 3 2
+ + + + + +
18
State Party
Lao PDR Lebanon Lithuania/Russian Fed. Madagascar New Zealand Nigeria Philippines Poland Portugal Spain Sweden United Kingdom Totals 21 States Parties
Vat Phou Cedars Curonian Spit Ambohimanga Tongariro Sukur Rice Terraces Kalwaria Sintra Alto Douro Aranjuez land Blaenavon
+ + + + + + +
30 sites
11
13
24
14
69
a. Plus natural criteria (ii) and (iii). b. Plus natural criteria (i) and (iii). c. Plus natural criteria (ii) and (iii). d. Could have justifiably used (i) also. e. Could have justifiably used (vi) also.
The Use of World Heritage Criteria for the Inscription of Cultural Landscapes The use of cultural criteria (i)(vi) for the inscription of cultural landscapes is tabulated alphabetically by State Party in Table 1. Of the criteria by which cultural landscapes are chosen, (iv) is used almost twice as much as any other criterion. This is rather surprising in two senses. In the first place, many of the early architectural and monumental sites were inscribed on this criterion, which is looking for a site to be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history. So here is a new type of World Heritage site which is, at least initially, adhering to a commonly used criterion for conventional sites. In the second place, the phrase (a) significant stage(s) in human history is often misunderstood. The value represented by the phrase is not an option in using this criterion: a site has to be, not might also be, able to demonstrate its role in one or more significant stages in
human history as well as be an outstanding example of a type. Assuming human history means the history of humanity, not some event or development of only local significance, criterion (iv) is often wrongly claimed and has perhaps even been mistakenly applied in inscribing World Heritage sites. On reflection, it might well be that half a dozen, if not more, of the twenty-four official cultural landscapes using criterion (iv) are not actually qualified in that respect, however outstanding they may or may not be. It could well be, then, that while criterion iv is certainly popular, its numerical disparity with criteria iii and v is not quite so justified as the figures would suggest. It is striking that not a single official cultural landscape required more than three criteria for inscription and that three found one criterion sufficient. The average number of criteria used is 2.3. Table 2 lists the cultural landscapes inscribed as such on the World Heritage List between the decision of the World Heritage Committee to recognize such a type of site in December 1992 and its approval of the latest nominations in June 2002.
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Tongariro Uluru Rice Terraces Sintra Lednice-Valtice Mont Perdu + HallstattDachstein 826 Italy Cinque Terre 830 Italy Amalfitana 1998 842 Italy Cilento 850 Lebanon Cedars 1999 474 Hungary Hortobgy 840 Cuba Viales 905 Poland Kalwaria 932 France Saint-Emilion 938 Nigeria Sukur 2000 534 Germany Dessau-Wrlitz 933 France Loire 968 Sweden land 970 Austria Wachau 984 UK Blaenavon 994 Lithuania/ Curonian Russ. Fed. Spit 1008 Cuba Coffee Plantations 2001 481 Lao PDR Vat Phou 772 Austria/ Fert/ Hungary Neusiedlersee 950 Madagascar Ambohimanga 1044 Spain Aranjuez 1046 Portugal Alto Douro 2002 1063 Hungary Tokaji 1066 Germany Rhine
1
+ +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +
+ +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Jf Ra Jf/Wi Jf/Wl
+ +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
I
+ + + + + +
+ +
Jf Wr
Wl Wr Ws Wr Wi
+ + + + + + + + + + +
2 3 4 1 2 3
+ + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + +
Ws
Wi Wi/Wl/Wr
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
Wl
+ + + +
4
+ + + +
5 6
+ + + + + + + +
Wi/Wl/Wr Wi/Wl
Wr
A B C F G
L M N P R S T W Other
Year = year of inscription on the World Heritage List. No. = number of site on the World Heritage List.
M State = State Party which, being signatory to the World Heritage Convention (1972), nominated the site for inscription. Name = name of site (perhaps shortened) as in Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List (WHC 2000/3, January 2000). (i)(iv) = natural criteria as defined in Properties, op. cit., p. 16, and in Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, on the basis of which the site has been inscribed on the World Heritage List. (i)(vi) = cultural criteria, as previous entry. AW identify a number of characteristics which seem to be significant in the nature and management of World Heritage cultural landscapes; but the list is subjective and neither inclusive nor definitive: A = aesthetic quality is significant on the site B = buildings, often large buildings, are present C = continuity of lifeway/land-use is an important element F = farming/agriculture is/was a major element in the nature of the landscape G = the landscape is, or contains as a major element, ornamental garden(s)/park(s) I = primarily an industrial site N P R S
T W
= the landscape is, or contains, elements which are significant in one or more forms of group identity such as for a nation, a tribe, or a local community = a mountain or mountains is/are an integral part of the landscape = the landscape contains, or is entirely, a National Park, = a locally resident population is a significant part of (the management of) the landscape = the landscape possesses an important dimension of religiosity/sanctity/holiness = survival is a significant theme in the landscape, physically as of ancient field systems and archaeological monuments, and/or socially, as of a group of people in a hostile environment = towns, and/or villages, are within the inscribed landscape = water is an integral, or at least significant, part of the landscape (see last column for Wi, Wl, Wr, Ws)
Other = the last column lists by initials less common characteristics of cultural landscapes which are nevertheless significant for that particular site: Jf = jungle/forest/woodland environment Ra = rock art Wi = irrigation, or other form of functional water management Wl = a lake or lakes is/are an integral part of the landscape Wr = as above, for river(s) Ws = as above, for sea
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Discussion of Table 2 Characteristics of World Heritage cultural landscapes The definitions attached to letters AW, and in the appended tabulations, indicate the emergence of certain trends and how, by 2002, World Heritage cultural landscapes are beginning to define themselves. As relatively common factors, some characteristics already stand out. The most common is the presence of towns and villages within the designated area. This may be a surprise. Cultural landscapes are clearly not so far mainly about the worlds wildernesses. Perhaps more than expected, cultural landscapes are often about living people as much as living landscapes; they may sometimes be remote but in general they are not deserted places. They are characteristically areas where people are continuing to try to gain a livelihood (fig. III). Sometimes that involves managing water. Water, and a variety of its manifestations is becoming apparent: as sea, as river(s), as lake(s), natural and artificial, and in some managed form, usually irrigation, and sometimes as a food source (fig. IV). It is present naturally but managed to aesthetic and functional ends at Sintra with its sub-tropical vegetation, and supremely so at Aranjuez (Spain), where the River Tagus has itself been modified. Water is used decoratively and more formally in great ornamental landscapes, most of which on the World Heritage List are not officially cultural landscapes but notably in the one which is, the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wrlitz, Germany (Holzknecht, 1998; fig. V). There, however, it found itself truly under water in August 2002. Water is or was often used, in cultural landscapes as elsewhere, for transport and delight, as along the Loire for example (fig. III). It, and particularly the sea, is also significantly present environmentally, at Portovenere/Cinque Terre on the north-western Italian coast, for example, and menacingly along the Curonian Spit on the borders of Lithuania and the Russian Federation. Water has not so far emerged, however, as particularly significant in a religious or sacred sense in cultural landscapes; but religiosity itself has begun to appear strongly as a feature of cultural landscapes (Fowler, 1999; Rssler, 2001b). Its presence is unambiguous at Tongariro, Uluru, Kalwaria and Sukur, and such is the strength and flexibility of the World Heritage concept that the same bureaucratic device can as readily embrace the great abbey at Melk in the Wachau landscape of Austria and the resonantly Biblical cedars of Lebanon at Horsh Arz el-Rab. Another topographical feature emerging as not uncommon is a mountain. Twelve sites claim a mountain, or mountains, as significant. The range includes a holy mountain at Mont Perdu (Pyrenees), an outcrop mountain with rock art in the desert at Uluru (Australia), and another oddity in the mountain above Hallstatt village (Austria), made of rock-salt, mined since the Bronze Age and constantly changing shape within (for mountains generally, and their values).
Continuity itself has also already appeared as a recurring factor, both as a lifeway and a form of land-use. It is present in nineteen of the thirty sites. There is obviously a cross-link here with cultural criterion (v), a criterion looking for traditional human settlement or land-use and used in ten of the inscriptions. This heavy embryonic emphasis on continuity and tradition in landscape and lifeway is good in the sense that, apart from anything else, attention is being drawn to places and peoples of considerable scientific and historic interest. Such places might well also be good examples of Phillips (1995, p. 381) living models of sustainable use of land and natural resources. On the other hand, it would surely be undesirable for the World Heritage List to become the refuge of only conservative societies and a shrine to landscapes of inertia. There must be room for innovation and change too, for disruption as well as continuity; they too are good and have their place in any worldwide selection of cultural landscapes expressing the human experience. Aesthetics are also showing as an important element by 2002. Nor is this dimension confined to landscapes like Lednice-Valtice where an aesthetic effect was deliberately sought, as category (i) allows; the aesthetic of the unintentional is as marked in the laborious landscapes of the Cordilleras rice terraces and among the port-producing terraces of the Alto Douro in Portugal. What has not happened, however, is for the portfolio of cultural landscapes to become dominated by category (i) sites (fig. II). That might have happened given the obviousness of parks and gardens in the European heritage, their widespread influence beyond Europe, and the strength of the aesthetic, architectural and art historical point of view within the conservation world (fig. V). So far, such parks and gardens with their palaces have tended to continue being nominated in modes other than cultural landscapes, with only four of the sites in Table 1 being in category (i) in their own right as designed landscapes.
A Wider View
There is yet another way of looking at cultural landscapes and the World Heritage List. It makes quite a difference. Conceptually speaking, and in fact, clearly there are many other cultural landscapes on the List. World Heritage is much richer in cultural landscapes than it has perhaps realized and certainly than has been openly admitted. There can be much argument about exactly which World Heritage sites are, or contain, these cultural landscapes, what types of cultural landscape they are, and indeed what sort of cultural landscape can legitimately be included. It would require considerable research to establish a firmly based list of them. Table 3 has been assembled as a first, preliminary and provisional attempt to identify the total potential cultural landscape content of the World Heritage List. The ascriptions of each landscape to a single cultural landscape category is somewhat misleading in that most contain
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elements of other categories; the principal characteristic is taken in each case. All the category (i) inscriptions, and most of those in category (iii), seem well-founded; and indeed there was very little difficulty in ascribing all the landscapes to one category or another. The 1992 categorization works well with a much larger order of numbers than previously attempted. The List is intended at this stage as no more than a basis for discussion and, ideally, more research. Not least with that end in view, consultation has taken place with the concurrent thematic analysis of all sites (up to June 2002) being undertaken by ICOMOS for the Committee. Both projects had independently produced very similar lists, both in size and content, before consultation. An agreed list contains an additional seventy properties, making it likely that a total of 100 cultural landscapes already exist on the World Heritage List (Table 3, the first page as a sample, with forty-two sites, of the complete list in Fowler, 2003, Table 10). Discussion of Table 3 Looking at the complete list (Fowler, 2003, Table 10), the number of potential cultural landscapes not nominated for cultural landscape status in the twenty years 197292 (when it was not an option) more than doubled in the decade 19922002 (when it was). Twenty-three of the thirty cultural landscapes were nominated as cultural landscapes; seven were not, but became cultural landscapes during evaluation. Seventy-seven of the 100 were not put forward as cultural landscapes in the post-1992 period. These figures suggest that the cultural landscape category, far from being a liberating mechanism, has actually been avoided.
Particularly striking is the case of China. Nine of its nominations could have been cultural landscapes in the period, but none were nominated as such, presumably deliberately. Most came forward as mixed sites; it would be interesting to discover why. Similarly, fourteen possible cultural landscapes from the Asia/Pacific region were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 19922002, yet none were nominated as such. Even in Europe, with fiftyone possible cultural landscape nominations in the decade, more than half (thirty) were not put forward as cultural landscapes. Perhaps this reluctance to use the category has something to do with a perception that it is more challenging to put together a successful World Heritage cultural landscape nomination dossier than one for an ordinary cultural or natural site. When both natural and cultural values are obviously involved, it may well seem easier to go for a mixed site. The latter is certainly not the case, for in it both sets of values have to be of outstanding universal value; but it may well be the case that, at least intellectually, a successful nomination of a cultural landscape is indeed challenging. It may also be sensed that the postinscription conservation responsibilities of a cultural landscape are heavier for the State Party, but there is no evidence that such is the case. All World Heritage sites need constant good management after inscription, whether or not they are cultural landscapes; but it may well be that the latter can require more sophisticated management than is sometimes the case with a relatively straightforward monument.
Table 3. Cultural Landscapes on the World Heritage List, arranged by UNESCO Regions (first page of complete table)
Region State Party Site Year Inscribed Cultural Landscape Category
Africa Botswana Madagascar Mali Nigeria Uganda 5 x States Parties Tsodilo Ambohimango Bandiagara Sukur Kasubi 5 x cultural landscapes 2001 2001 1989 1999 2001 19892001 (iii) (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (iii) 3 x (ii) continuing 2 x (iii)
Total
Arab States Egypt Lebanon Oman 3 x States Parties Ancient Thebes Cedars Frankincense Trail 3 x cultural landscapes 1979 1998 2000 19792000 (ii) relict (iii) (ii) relict 2 x (ii) relict 1 x (iii)
Total
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Region
State Party
Site
Year Inscribed
Asia and the Pacific Australia Kakadu Willandra Lakes Uluru-Kata-Tjuta Taishan Huangshan Mountain Resort Wudang Lushan Emeishan Suzhou Summer Palace Wuyishan Qingchen Darjeeling Railway Shirakawa Nikko Gusuku sites Vat Phou Tongariro Lahore Rice Terraces 21 x cultural landscapes 1992 1981 1994 1987 1990 1994 1994 1996 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 1999 1995 1999 2000 2001 1993 1981 1995 19812002 (ii) continuing (ii) relict (iii) (iii) (iii) (i) (i) (iii) (iii) (i) (i) (iii) (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (iii) (ii) relict (iii) (iii) (i) (ii) continuing 5 x (i) 2 x (ii) continuing 5 x (ii) continuing 9 x (iii)
China
India Japan
Total
Europe and North America Armenia Austria Geghard Schnbrunn Hallstatt Semmering Railway Wachau Fert/ Neusiedlersee Lednice-Valtice Kromeriz Versailles Fontainebleau Canal du Midi Santiago Routes Saint-Emilion 13 x cultural landscapes 2000 1996 1997 1998 2000 2001 1996 1998 1979 1981 1996 1998 1999 19812001 (iii) (i) (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (i) (i) (i) (i) (ii) continuing (ii) continuing (ii) continuing 5 x (i) 7 x (ii) continuing 1 x (iii)
Total
5 x States Parties
There also seems to have been a bureaucratic obstacle, perhaps out of respect for States Parties wishes. During the period 19922002, some eighty nominated properties were considered by ICOMOS to be potential cultural landscapes, irrespective of whether or not the State Party had nominated them to be of that status. Thirty were inscribed as official World Heritage cultural landscapes (Table 1), twenty-one strong ICOMOS recommendations for cultural landscape status were ignored, sixteen lukewarm recognitions of a cultural landscape potential were also ignored,
eleven were not recommended as cultural landscapes, and two were referred and have not so far reappeared (the full list is given in Fowler, 2003, p. 11). Whatever the reason, in a numerical sense the Committees and originators hopes for the popular success of the cultural landscape concept as a mechanism for the inscription on the World Heritage List of sites of a nonmonumental nature have not been realized in its first decade.
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Distribution (Diagrams 1, 2) The geographical distribution of official cultural landscapes, 65% in Europe, 35% in the rest of the world, mirrors the lop-sided distribution of sites on the World Heritage List as a whole (Rssler, 2001a). The idea of cultural landscape of itself is not going to change that numerical unevenness, it would already appear, despite the Committees attempts to tackle the problem and the hope that the existence of this type of site will encourage nominations from parts of the world which express their cuture in ways other than the monumentality towards which the Convention is itself unconsciously biased. The two schematic distribution maps are based on the five UNESCO regions by which World Heritage is administered (ENA: Europe and North America; LAC: Latin America and the Caribbean; AP: Asia and the Pacific; AS: the Arab States; Af: Africa). Diagram 1 shows the distribution of the thirty official World Heritage cultural landscapes. They are clustered heavily in Europe (21 out of 30 = 76%), with the remaining nine (24%) scattered as two in LAC (both in Cuba), four in AP, one in AS and two in Africa (both inscribed 2001). Clearly the geographical impact is negligible except in (largely Western) Europe and Cuba, though two dots in sub-Saharan Africa and two of the three in Australasia do not at all represent the impact of the idea of cultural landscape in those areas. Diagram 2 takes into account the other seventy possible cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List. It heavily reinforces Europes predominance (66 out of 100), though in percentage terms (66%) the European share falls. This is mainly because the Sino-Japanese area of the Asia-Pacific Region rises from zero to thirteen sites, the only major change in the map distributionally compared with Diagram 1. In terms of numbers, even using the 100 list, the concept has made almost no impact on Africa or the Arab world and only on Cuba in the Latin American/Caribbean region. All bar one of the Chinese sites in Diagram 2 (Table 3) have been inscribed since 1992, and not a single one of them is on the official list of World Heritage cultural landscapes. Yet without exception they are clear-cut World Heritage cultural landscapes by any standards, most as category (i) (gardens/parks). Their presence makes a considerable difference, not so much numerically, important though that is, but distributionally, giving due recognition to one of the outstanding areas of the world for the creation of manmade landscapes interacting with nature in spiritual mode (UNESCO, 2001). In a sense, the list of cultural landscapes is much better for their inclusion and, conversely, the World Heritage List would be more representative were their cultural landscape status formally recognized. Some of the point of inventing the cultural landscape category is obviated without such outstanding landscapes within it. Otherwise, Diagram 2 shows the numerical paucity of cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List in the geographical dimension. Though the thirty-six properties
(36%) in the rest of the world represent a fourfold increase on the nine non-European cultural landscapes on the formal List, the longer list only adds two other areas to the world distribution, both in the Americas. Two dots in the western United States (Mesa Verde, the first US inscription in 1978, and Chaco Culture National Historical Park, 1987; fig. VI) are rare examples of old inscriptions which would grace the list of formal World Heritage cultural landscapes today, particularly as they are well-researched scientifically as well as scenically grand. They are also rare in being archaeologically relict sub-category (ii) cultural landscapes, though doubtless both their indigenous inhabitants and park stewards would also argue for the continuing sub-category (ii).
AP 4
Asia-Pacific
LAC 2
Latin America/Caribbean
AS 1
Arab States
AF 2
Africa
ENA 66
Europe and North America
AP 21
Asia-Pacific
LAC 5
Latin America/Caribbean
AS 3
Arab States
AF 5
Africa
Diagram 2. The 100 possible cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List.
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The other little cartographic advance on Diagram 2 is in South America, with no dots on Diagram 1. Now, three dots, in fact far apart, just hint at the landscape potential of a subcontinent which should be characterizing itself in World Heritage terms by selecting from strength rather than appearing so poor (as illustrated in Barreda, 2002). But then much the same can be said, even with the longer list, for vast areas of the world. All the same, we have to begin somewhere, and it is prophetic perhaps that, small though the absolute numbers are, the longer list more than doubles the formally recognized cultural landscapes in Africa and among the Arab States.
Many of the sites identified appear in more than one of the resultant lists, indicating that the searches together probably culled the data fairly effectively. As so often with these sorts of analysis, however, the numbers produced have to be used with considerable caution. The data are themselves incomplete, in part inaccurate and not necessarily up to date.The searches were entirely machine-based, electronic and automatic: unlike earlier analyses here, the numbers reflect no human evaluation. All the same, from them it was possible to produce a consolidated list of every site that all three of the searches identified. It contains 174 properties from 58 States Parties. These numbers would suggest that over, say, the next decade, some 200 nominations of properties which are, or contain, cultural landscapes is very probably the maximum that can be conceived. My suggestion would be that in reality something between 50 and 100 cultural landscapes will be inscribed over the next ten years or so. This is of the same order of numbers arrived at by other means, and is not so different from an interpretation which can be placed on the numbers from the current categorical analysis of the tentative lists by ICOMOS. There, with a considerable degree of human judgement, eightyeight tentative cultural landscapes have been identified. In sum, assuming a continuing official minimalist approach, the number of official World Heritage cultural landscapes on the List by 2012 could easily have doubled from thirty and is more likely to be in the 75100 bracket. The actual number of cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List, extrapolating from the data here on top of the 100 such properties already on it, is likely to be about 200. Unfortunately, the consolidated list gives little comfort in terms of the Global Strategy. Absolute numbers apart, it suggests the present geographical imbalances will remain, at least proportionately (and, of course, in remaining they will reify). In the consolidated list, 10 States Parties in Africa could be involved with 10 properties (with a State Party/landscape site ratio of 1:1); 2 Arab States with 2 properties (1:1); 12 in the Asia/Pacific Region with 35 properties (1:3); 25 in Europe/North America with 95 properties (23 of them in Europe with 91 sites) (1:4); and 7 in the Latin American/Caribbean Region with 22 properties (1:3). Six European countries between them indicate a possibility that they could nominate almost exactly onethird (59) of the total; one of them, Italy, is suggesting that it might bring forward more landscape sites than the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean or of Africa and the Arab States. Similarly, discounting Italy, the other five European States Parties indicating five or more landscape sites Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany and the UK produce a total exactly the same as that indicated for the whole of the Asia and Pacific Region. There is a further likely bias in that in practice Europe tends to deliver a higher proportion of its potential nominations than other regions.
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On the other hand, there are some encouraging pointers. Perhaps China with its eleven potential landscape nominations will grasp the nettle of cultural landscape with at least some of them. In the same region, with many outstanding landscapes in central and northern Eurasia, Kazakhstan, with seven potential nominations, and Mongolia bid fair to become important participants in this field. As significant are the fifteen possible nominations from, equally, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, together suggesting a major contribution in this field from a grossly under-represented part of the world (Barreda, 2002). There are other welcome indicators of potential contributions from other parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa, from, for example, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Venezuela, Botswana, Guinea, Ghana and Togo. Notable for their absence from the List and perhaps to be congratulated on their restraint? are India and Spain.
important than other places but because it enjoys an extraordinary variety of farmed landscapes. Furthermore, judging from past practice and the tentative lists, many forthcoming cultural landscape nominations are going to come from Europe and in more cases than not they will involve farmed landscapes. Guidelines are already much needed for their assessment. It is in no ones interest to encourage nominations of, let alone inscribe as of outstanding universal value, an endless repetition of European agrarian cultural landscapes. The point has already been raised by consideration of Val de Bo (Spain, 2000, No. 988) and Val dOrcia (Italy, 2001, No. 1026, deferred), both scenically attractive and interesting as proposed cultural landscapes. In neither case was or is there, however, means of rationally assessing these valleys as agricultural landscapes in Europe in regional, let alone global, terms. Probably the best way of tackling the issue further afield is also on a continental or regional basis as, after all, the world is full of farming landscapes. Selecting from them for World Heritage purposes is a considerable task and, although the tentative lists can be one starting point, a systematic, academic study on a geographical basis without prejudice to what States Parties may already have in mind would in the long run be a sound way of proceeding. 2. The same mechanism also needs to be used to anticipate and encourage new nominations. In thinking about this sort of strategic approach, one significant theme which might be considered is provided by the worlds staple food crops. World Heritage cultural landscapes already represent montane rice-growing in the Cordilleras; a lowland equivalent, with flat paddy-fields counterbalancing steep terraces, is needed. And so too, along this line of thought, would be outstanding examples of landscapes producing potatoes (South America? Ireland?), yam (central Africa?), maize (terraces in the Andes?), cereals (Russian Federation? central Canada/United States?) and taro (South-East Asia? Hawaii?). With critical parts of the human diet also coming from domesticated animals, other landscapes which might be sought could include a sheepscape (New Zealand? Cheviot, UK?), a non-European (Hortobgy, Hungary, is already inscribed), animal-grazed extensive landscape as on the steppes of Asia (the Orkhon valley, Mongolia, is nominated for 2003), and a cattle-ranching landscape (Argentina? United States?). A fishing landscape might be more difficult to define on the ground and in water but it can be done and indeed at least one is part of an existing World Heritage cultural landscape (fig. IV). Whatever emerges as responses to such theoretical but real issues, a very practical matter is already with the concept of World Heritage early in the twenty-first century. What should we do about the twentieth century, which already seems in another age? World Heritage already contains some outstanding examples of earlier twentieth-
Future Directions
Whatever individual countries have in mind for the future, it is important that we are clear what, collectively, we are doing. Either we leave the future of cultural landscapes to individual, political choice and see what we end up with; or at least some central encouragement can be looked for to take their future in particular directions. The roles of the World Heritage Committee and the World Heritage Centre are clearly crucial here, and it is to be hoped that their thinking and actions will continue to develop along the strategic lines already in evidence. Thematic and Comparative Studies Strategically, it would be appropriate if the idea behind the targeting of European wine-producing areas could be extended to other major world culinary products (World Heritage Committee, 2002). We all depend, after all, on food and drink, so the universal significance of such potential cultural landscapes cannot be in much doubt; and in many parts of the world academic studies of ethnographic and agrarian matters exist which can give pointers to significance in such landscapes (e.g. Conklin, 1980; Donkin, 1979; Barreda, 2002; Fowler, 2002). Another drink already represented on the List is coffee, underpinning the cultural landscape of Cuban plantations (No. 1008; see also Rigol, 2000). Almost certainly there ought to be an equivalent nomination of an outstanding tea cultural landscape. But which one or ones? Two general points arise: 1. Evaluation of nominations has already become increasingly difficult where no comparative study exists. Expressed the other way round, evaluation is significantly improved where a comparative study has already been carried out, whether at local, state, regional or global level. The outstanding need is for a comparative study of agricultural landscapes, ideally worldwide and synchronously; but certainly to include Europe at an early stage. This would be not because Europe is more
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century architecture, notably in modernist mode, and it is now considering post-modernist architecture. Cultural landscape has the same challenge: what can we already identify as significant in landscape terms from the twentieth century? Landscapes of nuclear power is one clear answer among several others which might well include communications landscapes, landscapes of the war dead and landscapes of exploration. The last might well include an example from one of humanitys last terrestial frontiers, Antartica, a continent the only one currently with no World Heritage site at all. And what about religion? The topic is well-represented on the List without its having been the subject of a thematic review, but much of the choice results from nominations by State Parties of the obvious architectural , religious monuments and complexes in their country. Thus we have, for example, Studenica Monastery in Yugoslavia (1986, No. 389), one of many monastic and Christian sites on the List, the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divrigi, Turkey (1985, No. 358) and the Sacred City of Kandy, Sri Lanka (1988, No. 450). The great world religions have doubtless come to be represented by such an architectural approach Christianity certainly is but three aspects of this field need to be considered further. Does the List adequately represent the rich diversity of religious belief in the world, past and present? Is the range of sites, monuments and places associated with at least the main religions adequately represented (as distinct from yet more monasteries, temples and the like)? And are we adequately searching out the great religious landscapes of the world, irrespective of architectural mass and regardless of particular creeds? Tongariro (New Zealand) set the standard for a deeply religious, but entirely non-monumental, landscape; Uluru (Australia) followed. There should be a select number of other such landscapes and their variants some in China are on the longer list, and both the concept and mechanism of cultural landscape encourage people to think positively and boldly about religion in landscape terms. Mountains and water often key components of sacred landscapes come in here (Rssler, 2001b; Bernbaum, 2001). Another issue directly concerns heritage the initial concern of the Convention and small communities of people as survivors, an aspect of heritage which was not embraced by the original concept of the Convention. The issue is implicit at Lorentz (Indonesia), mentioned early in this paper. It was emphasized by the nomination and consideration in 2001 of the Central Sikhote-Alin region in the far east of the Russian Federation. This involved a huge and very important area in terms of natural history, consisting of several separate blocks of largely forested landscape. It contains a small population of hunter-gatherer people, the Udege, whose activities exploit the natural environment in a sustainable way and simultaneously have a significant effect upon flora and fauna. In this case the people characteristically live in a non-agricultural, or nonmechanized agricultural, economy within a significantly non-monumental lifestyle with minimal material culture.
The need is apparently, therefore, to consider in a global perspective whether or not preserving small, essentially non-Westernized indigenous populations in their natural habitats is the proper business of those implementing the World Heritage Convention. Given that the World Heritage Convention was devised to protect natural and artefactual heritage, including landscape, it would be a significant move were emphasis to shift to people too. The celebratory thirty years of World Heritage Congress at Venice, November, 2002, witnessed a palpable movement in this direction. The World Heritage Committee knows in any case that the best way for most properties to secure the future of that which we wish to maintain is to involve the residents and other local people and organizations. Conversely, it would logically follow in many cases that if we sustain the people first something which many would regard as a priority then we have secured the best means of maintaining the heritage that we wish to perpetuate. This applies particularly to landscape.
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be associated with its surrounding area to create a cultural landscape. This may be in only a minority of cases, for redundant industrial structures tend to be removed and in potential World Heritage cultural landscapes, in industrial properties as with rural, a range of features as well as good integrity is to be looked for. So one or more of such features as rail- or wagon-ways, canals, waste-disposal areas, specialist buildings for functions, equipment or workers, community housing and other social features could be expected in a meaningful pattern, ideally representing an industrial process. Several other topics of potential World Heritage interest can be mentioned that might well be expressed through cultural landscapes. Associations of a commercial nature, for example, almost invariably with cultural connotations, as in trade, are already touched on in the World Heritage List by including some individual towns in northern Europes medieval Hanseatic League. This idea could be systematized and enlarged into cohesive, serial nominations of urban/hinterland/marine and, where appropriate, island components to make up significant cultural landscapes. Indian/East African associations in this domain come to mind. Similarly, but going beyond commercial contacts, there is the idea of migration, surely one of undoubted outstanding universal interest. One example on a vast scale where it might nevertheless be possible to assemble a landscape of journeys, islands and landfalls interacting with nature in a long time-frame could be the peopling of Oceania from South-East Asia. The peopling of the (pre-European) Americas is a similar broad-based, interdisciplinary idea on the grand landscape scale of the type that World Heritage probably needs if it is to expand in the twenty-first century into global rather than continue in nationalistic mode. The military theme could also be expanded intellectually and spatially: for example, what about a campaign cultural landscape, that is one following the route of a decisive military campaign or of a great war-leader like Alexander the Great in south-west Asia in the fourth century BCE, showing how natural factors influenced his campaign and how the great leader responded. Identified with similar discrimination, the landscapes of a few great writers and artists might also be considered, either the landscapes that inspired them or which they delineated, or the landscapes through which they passed on their quest or travels, whatever they were. At one level the thought is here of classic journeys like that of Robert Louis Stevenson and his donkey through the French Cvennes in the nineteenth century, at another the association of artist (here painter rather than writer) and a particular place as with Huang Gongwang and the Yuan landscape, China, in the late thirteenth/early fourteenth centuries.
In a way, however, such suggestions are but sub-sets of the grander concept of landscapes of ideas, a move onwards from sites with ideology like Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Japan (1996, No. 775), and Robben Island, South Africa (1999, No. 916). Such ideas, however, already underpin official cultural landscapes at religious landscapes e.g. Vat Phou, Lao PDR (Hinduism), and Ambohimanga, Madagascar (ancestor worship). Several unofficial World Heritage cultural landscapes are also based on, or strongly embody, abstract ideas, concerned not only with religion but royalty (Kasubi, Uganda), solitude (Skellig Michael, Ireland), aesthetics (Mount Lushan, China) and human evolution (Willandra Lakes Region, Australia; cf. Charles Darwins house, itself of limited architectural interest, on the UK tentative list in recognition of the fundamental ideas about evolution which were thought, researched and written inside it). It may at first seem difficult to bring together the tangibility of landscape earth and rock and water with the intangibility of an abstract idea, but those examples indicate that it can be done. They suggest, moreover, that a more conscious approach to such juxtaposition, embracing the concept of cultural landscape, could probably generate some innovative, stimulating additions to the World Heritage List. After all, the very words cultural landscape and World Heritage are themselves mental constructs, differently construed by different cultures, through time and around the world. So, merely by identifying cultural landscapes, and in the case of World Heritage ones recognizing in them qualifying values, we are in practice already bringing together the conceptual and the tangible. Associative cultural landscapes (category iii) was created precisely to give the freedom to think of landscapes of ideas, a concept which has been widely welcomed in regional expert meetings, for example in Africa, Munjeri (2000) specifically and Rssler and Saouma-Forero (2000) generally. But it is a concept for all cultures, one within which to recognize that alongside the world of things there are worlds of ideas from oral traditions, folklore, art, dance and music, and thinkers, talkers, writers and poets. It is furthermore a concept which can in a very practical way, as the last decade has shown, stimulate international co-operation, local effort, better environmental understanding and wiser landscape management. We should be thankful that in cultural landscapes we have a wonderful idea, one whose memorable days as World Heritage lie in the future.
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References
AITCHISON, J. 1995. Cultural landscapes in Europe: a geographical perspective. In: B. von Droste et al. (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy, pp. 27288. Jena, Fischer Verlag. BARREDA, E. M. (ed.). 2002. Paisajes culturales en los Andes. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. BERNBAUM, E. 2001. Sacred mountains of the World Heritage. World Heritage Review, No. 23, pp. 423. BIRKS, H. H. et al. (eds.). 1988. The Cultural Landscape Past, Present and Future. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. CLEERE, H. 1995. Cultural landscapes as World Heritage. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, No. 1, pp. 638. . 1999. Cultural landscapes and the World Heritage List: development, definitions, and problems. In: G. Hajs (ed.), Monument Site Cultural Landscape exemplified by The Wachau, pp. 1724. Proceedings of an International Conference, 1215 October 1998, Drnstein, Austria. Vienna, Verlag Berger. CONKLIN, H. C. 1980. Ethnographic Atlas of Ifugao. A Study of Environment, Culture and Society. New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press. DMKE, S.; SUCCOW, M. (eds.). 1998. Cultural Landscapes and Nature Conservation in Northern Eurasia. Proceedings of the Wrlitz Symposium, March 2023. Bonn, Narturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU)/AIDEnvironment/Nature Conservation Bureau. DONKIN, R. A. 1979. Agricultural Terracing in the Aboriginal New World. Tucson, Ariz., Univesity of Arizona Press for Wenner-Grenn Foundation for Anthropological Research. (Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 56.) FOWLER, P. J. 1999. Cultural landscape archaeology, ancestors and archives. In: G. Hajs (ed.), Monument Site Cultural Landscape exemplified by The Wachau, pp. 5663. Proceedings of an International Conference, 1215 October 1998, Drnstein, Austria. Vienna, Verlag Berger. . 2000. Cultural landscapes of Britain. Int. J. Heritage Studies, No. 6, pp. 20112. . 2001. Cultural landscape: great concept, pity about the phrase. In: R. Kelly et al. (eds.), The Cultural Landscape. Planning for a sustainable partnership between people and place, pp. 6482. Edited papers from a conference on cultural landscapes, Oxford, May 1999. London, ICOMOS UK.
. 2002. Farming in the First Millennium AD. British Agriculture between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. . 2003. World Heritage Cultural Landscapes 19922002. A Review. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. HAJS, G. (ed.). 1999. Monument Site Cultural Landscape exemplified by The Wachau. Proceedings of an International Conference, 1215 October 1998, Drnstein, Austria. Vienna, Verlag Berger. HOLZKNECHT, A. 1998. The Dessau-Wrlitz Garden Realm and the challenge of sustainability. In: S. Dmke and M. Succow (eds.), Cultural Landscapes and Nature Conservation in Northern Eurasia. Proceedings of the Wrlitz Symposium, March 2023, pp. 51. Bonn, Narturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU)/AIDEnvironment/Nature Conservation Bureau. JACQUES, D. 1995, The rise of cultural landscapes. Int. J. Heritage Studies, No. 1, pp. 91101. KELLY, R.; MACINNES, L.; THACKRAY, D.; WHITBOURNE, P. (eds.). 2001. The Cultural Landscape. Planning for a sustainable partnership between people and place. Edited papers from a conference on cultural landscapes, Oxford, May 1999. London, ICOMOS UK. LAYTON, R.; TITCHEN, S. 1995. Uluru: an outstanding Australian Aboriginal cultural landscape. In: B. von Droste et al. (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy, pp. 17481. Jena, Fischer Verlag. MACINNES, L. (ed.). 1999. Assessing Cultural Landscapes: Progress and Potential. Edinburgh, ICOMOS UK. MCKIBBEN, B. 1990. The End of Nature. Harmondsworth, UK, Penguin Books. MITCHELL, N.; BUGGEY, S. 2000. Protected landscapes and cultural landscapes: taking advantage of diverse approaches. The George Wright Forum, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 3546. MUNJERI, D. 2000. Cultural landscapes in Africa. In: M. Rssler and G. Saouma-Forero, The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 914 March 1999, pp. 3543. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. PARKS CANADA. 2000. An Approach to Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes. http://parks canada.pch.gc.ca/aborig/sitemap_e.htm
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PHILLIPS, A. 1995. Cultural landscapes: an IUCN perspective. In: B. von Droste et al. (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy, pp. 38092. Jena, Fischer Verlag. . 2001 The nature of cultural landscapes: a nature conservation perspective. In: R. Kelly et al. (eds.), The Cultural Landscape. Planning for a sustainable partnership between people and place, pp. 4663. Edited papers from a conference on cultural landscapes, Oxford, May 1999. London, ICOMOS UK. PRIORE, R. 2001. The background to the European Landscape Convention. In: R. Kelly et al. (eds.), The Cultural Landscape. Planning for a sustainable partnership between people and place, pp. 317. Edited papers from a conference on cultural landscapes, Oxford, May 1999. London, ICOMOS UK. RIGOL, I. 2000. Cultural landscapes in the Caribbean. In: H. de Hoof (ed.), La patrimoine culturel des Carabes et la Convention du patrimoine mondial, pp. 25976. Paris, UNESCO. (dition du Comit des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques.) RSSLER, M. 1998. The World Heritage Convention on landscapes: the setting for our future lives. Naturopa, No. 96. . 1999. Cultural landscapes in the framework of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention, 1972). In: G. Hajs (ed.), Monument Site Cultural Landscape exemplified by The Wachau, pp. 2532. Proceedings of an International Conference, 1215 October 1998, Drnstein, Austria. Vienna, Verlag Berger. . 2000. World Heritage cultural landscapes. The George Wright Forum, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 2734. . 2001a. World Heritage cultural landscapes in the European Region. In: R. Kelly et al. (eds.), The Cultural Landscape. Planning for a sustainable partnership between people and place, pp. 3845. Edited papers from a conference on cultural landscapes, Oxford, May 1999. London, ICOMOS UK. . 2001b. Sacred landscapes: new perspectives in the implementation of the cultural landscape concept in the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, pp. 2741. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. RSSLER, M.; SAOUMA-FORERO, G. (eds.). 2000. The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 914 March 1999. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
SAUER, C. O. 1925. The morphology of landscape. University of California Publications in Geography, Vol. 2.2, pp. 1953. SIMMONS, I. 1989. Changing the Face of the Earth: Culture, Environment, History. Oxford, Blackwell. TITCHEN, S. M.; RSSLER, M. 1995. Tentative lists as a tool for landscape classification and protection. In: B. von Droste et al. (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy, pp. 4207. Jena, Fischer Verlag. UNESCO. 1962. Recommendations concerning the Safeguarding of the Beauty and Character of Landscapes and Sites. Paris, UNESCO. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 1999. Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. . 2001. Thematic Expert Meeting on Asia-Pacific Sacred Mountains, 510 September 2001, Paris/Tokyo, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. . 2002. Cultural Landscapes (web page listing the thirty official current World Heritage cultural landscapes at http://whc.unesco.org/exhibits/cultland/landscape.htm). UNESCO World Heritage Committee. 2002. World Heritage Expert Meeting on Vineyard Cultural Landscapes, 1114 July 2001, Tokaji, Hungary. Budapest, Nemzeti Kulturlis rksg Minisztriuma. VILLALN, A. 2001. Spiritual values versus the reality of physical survival at the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, pp. 189203. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. VON DROSTE, B.; PLACHTER, H.; RSSLER, M. (eds.). 1995. Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag. VON DROSTE, B.; RSSLER, M.; TITCHEN, S. (eds.). 1999. Linking Nature and Culture. Report of the Global Strategy Natural and Cultural Heritage Expert Meeting, 25 to 29 March 1998, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Paris/The Hague, UNESCO/Ministry for Foreign Affairs/Ministry for Education, Science and Culture.
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Contents The brief for this review Executive Summary Summary of recommendations Preface with acknowledgements 1. Introduction cultural landscape 1992 World Heritage Convention 1972 World Heritage List 2002 2. Cultural landscapes brief history, the concept and definitions World Heritage Committee and cultural landscape nominations for 200102 3. The Advisory Bodies and World Heritage cultural landscapes 4. Analysis of World Heritage cultural landscapes 19922002 categories, definitions and criteria characteristics of World Heritage cultural landscapes 5. Some old scores: a simple matrix analysis 6. A wider view of cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List numbers and distribution analyses of the tentative lists submitted by State Parties 7. Overview global view of cultural landscapes future directions and orientations 8. Conclusion 9. Recommendations Appendices: A. Minutes of the World Heritage Committee: discussions and decisions concerning cultural landscapes B. Expert meetings on cultural landscapes C. Provisional list of possible cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List D. Cultural landscapes in ICOMOS evaluations, 19922002 E. Potential cultural landscapes on the World Heritage Centres Tentative Lists Database F. World Heritage cultural landscapes: a view from the Centre G. The assessment of cultural landscapes by ICOMOS and IUCN A select bibliography
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As a cluster of sacred sites, the form of Uluru incorporates the actions, artefacts and bodies of ancestral heroes celebrated in Anangu religion (Layton and Titchen, 1995, p. 177): Uluru (Australia). 4
Peter Fowler
cultural landscapes are often about living people as much as living landscapes they are characteristically areas where people are continuing to try to gain a livelihood in towns and villages: north bank of the River Loire (France). 5
Water, a characteristic feature of cultural landscapes, is here central to a fishing landscape as a memorial to the unknown labourer: traditional structures for eel-fishing, now restored as an open-air museum, the Po delta (Ferrara, Italy). 6
An old inscription of a monument as a World Heritage site which now, with its environment and history better understood from another fifteen years research, could well be renominated as a cultural landscape: Chaco (United States).
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Peter Fowler
Water as part of an organized structure within a designed landscape: Studley Royal Park (United Kingdom).
Peter Fowler
Elias Mujica
UNESCO
Experiences from ICCROM Pilot International Workshop on Integrated Conservation of Heritage Territories and Landscapes
At the time of the Ferrara meeting, ICCROM was addressing efforts to improve management capacity for landscapes through a number of complementary research and
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training activities. One of these, a recently completed four-week training workshop devoted to the management of cultural landscapes, was held in Rome in November/December 2002. This workshop brought together sixteen participants from all regions of the world to exchange experiences and improve their capacity to manage landscapes of heritage value. ICCROM hopes to make available the curriculum-development lessons gained in that workshop, after testing and refinement, to all interested training institutions and agencies. The issues addressed at the workshop included the following key themes: Relationship of people and place over time, within traditional land-uses Recognition of changes in the perception of landscape values Interaction of nature and culture, as understood in different cultures and contexts Involvement of diverse disciplines in integrating various management systems Links to ability to address societys needs Complexity of ownership and multiple jurisdictions This broad focus brought together participants from a wide range of backgrounds and, during the workshop, discussions about the various meanings of a landscape approach in different cultural contexts became a part of the mutual learning process. Different definitions of cultural landscape implying different approaches to determining what is important to conserve, and also important to manage have created much international discussion in recent years. The evolution towards a common language also proved to be an important part of the ICCROM workshop. The definitions formed part of the workshop curricula and underwent constant re-evaluation during the discussions. The goal was not to choose one definition, but to use participants definitions as a tool for understanding. The development of these created a common platform for later discussions about values, landscapes and management approaches in general. The workshop participants represented all continents and brought their own working issues to the table. Many had been professionally involved in the World Heritage nomination process and were responsible for the management of existing or potential World Heritage cultural landscapes. The World Heritage nomination clearly has had a catalytic role in many countries and regions, strengthening arguments and methods applied to conservation of all landscapes of heritage value. World Heritage is often the initiating factor in discussion of values and significance, and in defining what good management includes. The workshop itinerary followed a path from the introduction of a conceptual framework of approaches to integrated conservation to exposure of tools and skills needed
for implementation in various regional perspectives. Three main poles of reference were used: the World Heritage focus on significant landscapes; the emerging view of the importance of all landscapes to their citizens as expressed in the European Landscape Convention; the Protected Areas approach advocated by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). These were used as continuous references in treating various themes introduced each week. The World Heritage Centre and IUCN/ICPL (International Centre for Protected Landscapes) participated as partners and contributed to the global perspectives offered for cultural landscape management. The case studies looked at were derived from the three poles of reference above, and touched on issues ranging from conservation of designated areas, to protected area management, to finding meaning for contemporary society in landscape. The workshop treated two particular facets of a potential World Heritage nomination: developing a statement of significance for a site and carrying out an assessment of management adequacy for a proposed World Heritage site. A third project focus involved developing indicators for monitoring cultural landscapes, in the context of ICCROMs Monitoring Reference Manual for World Heritage sites. The specific focus of the World Heritage Convention was also recognized in maintaining significance as the central goal of management. The participants confirmed the relevance of including monitoring in the management cycle in their work with cultural landscapes and the need for more training in this area. Monitoring was seen as strongly linked to understanding significance and evaluating the impact of time and circumstances, and therefore understood as an essential part of the management process. A site visit to the World Heritage cultural landscape of Cinque Terre (Italy) exposed the participants to current landscape conservation dilemmas and strategies. These included environmental threats caused by loss of traditional land-use practices, sustainable tourism management and the survival of the local community. The outsiders professional view represented by the international group was appreciated by the local management team and fostered an intense dialogue about conservation options. The main concern here was how to understand the transformation process in the cultural landscape and its changing meaning for the local community, as a means for defining appropriate forms of future development. Cinque Terre is sharing a situation similar to that of many other cultural landscapes. The traditional land-use with its vine-cultivating terraces is no longer attracting young people, who are moving to nearby cities. The traditional skills of building and repairing drystone walls lie in the memory and hands of a small number of elderly men.
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Consequently the cultural landscape and its terraces are deteriorating rapidly, at the same time giving rise to an increasing environmental threat. Pressure from tourism, on the other hand, is bringing in new management challenges for the local community to deal with. The newly created National Park is responding to these with innovative strategies concerning the use of tourism income and other pilot projects for the restoration of the landscape. Questions asked here have been asked in many other World Heritage cultural landscapes facing similar problems: Does it mean anything to save the appearance of the landscape without maintaining the underlying traditional social structure? Can the landscape be managed as a product for tourism use? How can the limits of acceptable change be established? Who decides? The participants in the ICCROM workshop took many of these questions back to their own work.
cultural landscape. The new attention paid to cultural landscapes has necessitated recognition of landscapes as heritage entities containing features and processes requiring protection, conservation and management. In other words, the concept has moved beyond a device used to enhance appreciation of the mechanics of environmental transformation, to one perceived to offer a set of operational tools to improve definition and care of all forms of heritage. Much of this development has taken place within the World Heritage framework. The real advantage of admitting cultural landscapes to the heritage family, however, is the opportunity afforded to embrace a holistic way of looking, in assessing what it is important to retain and manage. The cultural landscapes in the World Heritage system encompass landscapes of all types: urban, rural, industrial and agricultural. In practice, however, most cultural landscapes inscribed have been rural continuing landscapes. A cultural landscape approach demands another way of working, one focused on the key processes that have shaped and continue to define the character of the landscape over time. For example, agricultural policy should be recognized as perhaps the major factor in maintaining or losing heritage values in rural landscapes. In real-life decision-making, the integration of concern for cultural landscapes in policies and legislation becomes a tangible and compelling challenge for heritage professionals. And it calls for cross-sectoral capacity building and integrated training programmes. Is it then more beneficial to focus on cultural landscapes or on care of landscapes in general? The European Landscape Convention asks countries to recognize that all landscapes possess heritage values of one kind or another, at one level or another, and that these values all demand careful consideration in the long-term management and evolution of all landscapes. This approach encourages efforts to define heritage values present in all landscapes and to develop planning processes, which ensure their protection in development. Experience will show the impact of this approach on heritage management. The management objectives of sustainable development include supporting lifestyles and economic activities which integrate community knowledge in management, making man more responsible for variations in social and environmental conditions, etc. The shift from an area-focused approach to the need to consider all the changing processes and structures in the landscape requires new competencies and new working methods. In particular, when dealing with cultural values in common landscapes, in unprotected areas or other designated areas, there is a need to recognize actions that can produce structural changes in the environment. These can be agricultural policies, as mentioned above, investments in infrastructure, new economic strategies, employment policies and so on. Changes in cultural landscapes must be considered in the context of different national and local policy and decision-making. The cultural landscape approach offers a
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framework for looking holistically at the relations among the features and the processes, which continue to give the cultural landscape its character.
Steps Forward
The experiences from ICCROMs recent training activities testify that key concerns in sustainable cultural landscape management are comparable around the world. The global exchange and sharing of successful experiences reinforce efforts and encourage professionals to improve their management practices and find arguments for conservation. Furthermore, interlinked international and regional policies affect us all to a great extent, and the possibility of learning from experience of impacts and consequences can greatly contribute to the development of successful management strategies and give courage to professionals worldwide. The cultural landscape approach can offer a framework which encompasses all of the interrelated factors, relationships, elements, and processes that need to be brought to the same decision-making arena in order to support management approaches which sustains meaning and values in the complexity of landscapes. ICCROM is looking for opportunities with its many international, regional and national partners to continue to strengthen efforts to test landscape management curriculum materials and to move proven approaches towards greater understanding, acceptance and fruitful application around the world. The next ICCROM Integrated Territorial and Urban Conservation course in 2003 will deal with issues and concerns of relevance to both historic cities and landscapes.
Developing a Dialogue
An overall concern that evolved during the ICCROM workshop was how to develop a dialogue with the community, to define participatory management in practice. The role of the community (or communities) naturally differed greatly in participants home countries, but the crucial role of the community in management was acknowledged by all. Participatory management includes the community based on the communitys own identification of its role and values. Ownership of heritage can be a multifaceted and controversial issue and it was discussed in lively fashion during the ICCROM workshop. Whose values, acknowledged by whom? What is the role of the conservation professional in the promotion of growing public awareness, involvement and acceptance of the cultural values in the landscape? The understanding and identification of significant values in landscapes is a process where shared learning is essential. In a dialogue with the local community, in learning from each other, in sharing the story of the landscape, values, even competing values, are made visible. Consequently these values are not static; they are identified and consolidated during each process of change, and within a new dialogue. Without this process of identification the heritage is without a message. And, too often, the significance of these values is not even apparent before the decision-making process is well on its way. The next questions concern how these values are linked to management, to intervention strategies, to social changes. What are the shared benefits? Successful integration of heritage in decision-making requires both reliable arguments (to make the cultural values legitimate) as well as innovative forms of communication in order to gain understanding and respect. In the complexity of the processes and the multiplicity of stakeholders involved in the management of landscapes, gaining support and respect becomes a major issue. Consequently, process management is a vital part of cultural landscape management, requiring new forms of collaboration with other disciplines and new cross-professional training methods.
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We are incorporating ways of life that represent or belong to other cultures, which contributes to dilute or reduce our personality. These are transformations due to economic interests or urgent market demands, not due to the harmonious relation with pre-existing surroundings and aesthetics of the landscape. We are confronted with two theories. On the one hand, it seems that our cultural and intellectual background conditions our understanding of landscape; on the other hand it seems also possible that a relation with landscape exists that is independent from our personal education. Before the aesthetic and cultural feelings we have for Nature, which is a quite recent approach, there could have been a visceral, organic, ancestral feeling; so to speak, a feeling of well-being. Nature is beautiful in its natural status, per se. Like a symbol of freedom in its most pure expression; let us say that it is what it is, without any modification or restraint, the free play of our imagination when contemplating it. In Wordsworths magisterial words: to all natural forms, rocks, fruits or flowers, to the very same stones that cover the road I did insufflate a moral life: I saw that they felt or I persuaded them to have some feelings: the big mass remains covered by a living soul and everything I see breathes with an interior sense. Beauty has more to do with the look given to things than with things themselves. It is the feeling that creates beauty. Who could better speak about Landscape than the Ancient Greeks? Our whole culture has been impregnated with the Greek world. For the Greek the world, Nature, is the logos. The temple is in itself a perfect totality, inseparable from the rock, the sky or the clouds. At the very same time history and legend are melted with the logos, with the place, and form all together one only thing. The capacity to reason and our historical and cultural baggage are added to the pure sensorial perception in order to increase or reduce the world of things that are vitally important. The threshold becomes more diffuse the higher the level is the relation between man and nature is treated. In the voice of Lorca: Each day has a different sound. Thats what happens to the water meadow of Granada. It has lower and higher tones. It has passionate melodies and solemn tunes of cold solemnity The sound of the Darro River is the harmony of the landscape. It is the flute of immense tunes that the surroundings made sound. Four-fifths of humanity is confined to big cities. Very often the immediate space around us is a lifeless space; an unusual ecosystem is being configured without perceptible plants or animals; a place where only one living being, the human being, establishes a relation with equally unprecedented surroundings.
There is an evident unbalance in the relation between man and Nature, which could easily be resumed to the systematic sacking of Nature. This raises questions relating to the development of nature and its consequences for concrete scientific and sociological topics. At the same time, it justifies attempts to find a relation between the organization of social structures and physical infrastructures. We are entering a field that is mainly conditioned by subjective appreciations, where cultural levels and aesthetic education, as well as the grade of social generalization, play important roles. The cultural heritage of landscape can only be acquired by qualified information. Therefore we must learn and teach to read the landscape, its facts and symbols: its systems and transformations. As Michelet said, it is a question of learning to feel and see the relation of the soul and the earth. A thought within a civilization based on knowledge and respect. The history of man is the history of our relation with the earth, with Nature. The kind of sociology that is only aiming at a civilization based on consumption development has produced a break with landscape and Nature. The oil crisis of the 1970s demonstrated that those resources are not eternal. All efforts of the past century have been directed to making a tabula rasa of the territory and to use it as an amorphous support where everything is allowed. Never before in human history has the earths surface experienced such rapid and often brutal changes as today. This is why the break with the landscape, still alive in our memory, is so evident. The rapid development of means of transport has also helped to radically change the landscape. As self-sufficiency is no longer an inevitable necessity, each region has been able to specialize in those productions being more profitable in bigger markets, abandoning land that is more difficult to cultivate, standardizing the landscape and suppressing diversity with its richness of textures and colours. For economic reasons, drastic changes have been introduced olive trees, vines, green fields through policies that determine at other levels transformations that at least ought to be better studied when considering their final consequences. Consciousness of the fragility of our surroundings is growing. The result is an identity crisis, the wish to recover a lost emblematic image and an impressive increase of the desire for a local memory. Landscape is becoming venerated again. We are the inhabitants of the planet, not guests. It is the only home we can leave to our children.
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Modernity or the essence and desire to be modern have contributed to modify territory without any real justification. Simpler and easier to copy formulas are being used instead of looking for more appropriate and original solutions. This is the policy of a society based on consumption, like the promotion of tourism made by travel agencies: great views, splendid landscapes. There still is a dynamic for landscape, a comeback and an interest for them because there have always been and there will always be landscapes that we keep in our memory and we do not want to renounce. The great dangers of modern society, the unstoppable development of cities, highways, deforestation, land abandonment, desertification, mono-cultivation, mechanization, chemical fertilizers, mechanical means, electric and nuclear power plants, industries of different kinds, have destroyed the natural, bucolic and pastoral landscape. Man used to have a harmonious and respectful relation with Nature. He used to be humble and knew that he was dependent on Nature. Humanity in vain tried to renounce the landscape, closing it up in museums or changing it into an artistic artefact, or even worse, into a monument. Man used to be in the landscape, in and with Nature. Now he has put himself outside and above it. He must learn to recover what has been lost, but also to value what it still has. It must be incorporated in the reality of his cultural life, into his dynamics. He must establish a new dialogue based, like all constructive dialogues, on understanding, knowledge and tolerance. Because nothing will be achieved while we have no consciousness of the fact that landscape is, above all, evolution, change and relation among all its components. We have never felt landscape more present than we do now, as we feel it is being threatened. Each period in history has its own landscape and only time has been able to convert its elements into a constructed image. In 1972 Marcuse said: when Nature has been merchandized, polluted, oppressed and vandalized, it has destroyed the vital environment of mankind. To recover Nature is to recover the powers that generate life, its aesthetic and sensual qualities. Real Nature starts to be unknown to us, as in the case of a child not knowing what a chicken is, or a cow, or a sheep. New and unknown things have always attracted our curiosity. It is the right moment to readdress the enjoyment of Nature. To worries about the landscape are added worries of losing the landscape. Both are included in the wider term environment.
Nature and landscape are the same term, the same concept. To modify the landscape is to modify Nature. If we admit this, we cannot speak about the origin of landscape because then landscape would always have been there. Landscape is embedded in the eternity of Nature, and has always existed before man and even without man. Literature, painting and culture have modelled and given it its existential value: they have given it a name. We will have made a giant step forwards when we start considering the complexity of the problem and when we become aware that we cannot separate culture from landscape/Nature. We must work on the landscape at very different levels because to really change or improve it will always depend on a change in societys mentality. The recovering of dialogue, which is the basis for harmony, is being translated into a mentality change with respect to our place in the world. A change that must be based on techniques, expertise, programming or interdependency of the twenty-first century, but without forgetting love, feelings and beauty. Let us distance ourselves from attempts to create a designed landscape, as has been done in cities. Design, or at least the intention of it, the intervention of man, must not leave everything foreseen. It should introduce undetermined margins that effectively allow a process of spontaneity with variations and adaptations as time passes by. That the means that are being projected for its future materialization should be able to absorb formal results and changes in the meanings, something most close to the spontaneous human process. Except for very few cases, let us distance ourselves from the landscape as a museum and let us remember that landscape is basically an image of life, which therefore changes and is unpredictable. In conclusion, I would like to recall the words of Hermann Hesse about a beautiful road in Ticino: I dearly love all this, and without being an enemy of progress, without complaining on the living flood of changes, I deeply regret each motorway, each block of concrete, each metallic post for power leading whose spirit has already yellowed the roots of this idyll here machines will soon replace hands, money will soon replace moral with all reason, with no reason at all and as some of us know with the intellect of the heart too, this is not a question of progress or romanticism, of going further or going back, but a question of exteriority or interiority: and we are not afraid of trains or cars, but of superficiality.
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The role of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in the World Heritage Convention is as an advisor on natural aspects. It may therefore seem surprising that it has played an important part in developing the principles behind cultural landscapes and has worked closely with colleagues in ICOMOS since 1992 on this concept. Nonetheless, IUCN has taken a close interest in the topic, which parallels a number of developing ideas about protected areas in general. This paper seeks to explain the basis of IUCNs interest in the idea of cultural landscapes. It describes a convergence between the interest of IUCN in protected areas and that of the World Heritage Committee in cultural landscapes, which has two perspectives: operational i.e. some of the same places are of value both as protected areas and as World Heritage cultural landscapes. conceptual i.e. the same ideas have been at work in both IUCNs view of protected areas and within the World Heritage community.2 These two perspectives are examined and some resulting issues suggested that could form the basis for a shared programme of work between IUCN and the rest of the World Heritage community.
purposes, IUCN has developed a system of categorizing protected areas by their primary management objective. It identifies six distinct categories (IUCN, 1994), which are set out in Annex 1. This system is being increasingly accepted by national governments as a framework to guide the establishment and management of protected areas. A growing number of countries have integrated it within their domestic legislation or policy relating to conservation and protected areas. Every few years, the United Nations Environment Programmes World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge (UK) and the World Commission on Protected Areas of IUCN produce the socalled UN List of Protected Areas. This is a global assessment, first called for by the United Nations, of the extent and distribution of protected areas as defined above. The most recent published version of the UN List uses 1997 data (IUCN, 1998). At that date, there were 30,350 individual protected areas,3 covering 8.83% of the worlds total land area (13,232,275 sq. km) equivalent to the area of India and China together. The latest records at UNEPWCMC show that there are now around 60,000 areas that meet the above definition, approximately 10% of the terrestrial area (though the increase in numbers is due far more to better recording than to a real jump of that order over the past five years). This is an impressive achievement and represents a major commitment by countries to protect their natural heritage. It is also a great gift to the new century, giving peoples and governments development and conservation options which would otherwise have been lost. But there are many shortcomings with the coverage of protected areas. In many countries coverage is far below the global average. Moreover the global figure of 10% or so relates to the land, not to the sea where less than 1% is protected. Also a far higher proportion of some biomes (such as tropical savannah) are protected than are others (such as lake ecosystems and temperate forests). Although gaps in the coverage of protected areas are a serious deficiency in the global system, an even greater problem is the many threats to protected areas around the
1. The author acknowledges valuable comments from Susan Buggey and Pedro Rosabal on the draft of this paper. 2. Shorthand for the World Heritage Committee, the World Heritage Centre, the Advisory Bodies and others with an active interest in the World Heritage Convention. 3. The UN List covers for technical and methodological reasons only protected areas over 1,000 ha.
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world. The sheer number and extent of protected areas tells us nothing about how well they are managed. Thus, even when these areas exist in law, they often suffer from encroachment, poaching, unregulated tourism, deforestation, desertification, pollution and so forth. Most protected areas lack management plans, yet such plans are essential if a national park or a nature reserve is to achieve its stated aims. Many protected area managers lack the necessary skills business skills for example. Often these places are ignored in national and regional development planning and in sectoral planning. Most importantly, many local communities tend to be alienated from protected areas nearby or in which they live yet without winning the hearts and minds of the people directly affected, conservation is at best a means of buying time. Such are the problems and there are many more facing the worlds protected areas. Moreover, threats will increase in future: rising numbers of people, increased demands for resources of all kinds, pollution of many sorts (often novel and insidious), the prospects of accelerating climate change, the effects of globalization all these represent a new order of challenge to protected areas around the world. The paradox is that the worlds protected areas face evergreater threats to their continued existence just when their values are growing in importance to humanity. If protected areas indeed have a growing value to society, and yet they are increasingly at risk, it would appear that there is something badly wrong in the way in which we plan and manage them. Only some of the answers, of course, are available to protected area managers themselves. Issues such as global patterns of trade, war and conflict, and climate change are matters for national governments, often working together, to address. But it is also widely recognized among the planners and managers of the protected areas themselves that a new approach is needed. The main elements of this have been captured in a new paradigm (see Table 1).
From the point of view of the World Heritage community, it is interesting to note that the new paradigm recognizes the limitations of the traditional approach to nature conservation, based largely on the strict protection of mostly natural areas. For a number of reasons, this is no longer considered sufficient. It overlooks the well-documented evidence that many so-called wilderness areas have in fact been modified by people over long periods of time. It ignores evidence that in many areas disturbance of natural systems can be good for nature. It overlooks the rich genetic heritage of crops and livestock associated with farming in many parts of the world. Moreover, excluding people from the land (or water) on grounds of nature conservation often meets with resistance from local communities; collaborative approaches are needed instead. Finally, nature conservation has to be concerned with the lived-in landscape because it cannot be achieved sustainably within islands of strict protection surrounded by areas of environmental neglect. One may conclude from this analysis that the aims of protected areas have broadened out, and the means by which they are achieved have become much more diverse. Most importantly, IUCN, and the nature conservation movement generally, now recognize far more than they did only ten or twenty years ago the importance of (a) the humanized, lived-in landscapes as well as natural environments; and (b) the cultural dimension to conservation of nature. Thus, the new paradigm in Table 1: adds significance particularly to Category V in the IUCN protected areas system (see Annex 1 and below) as such areas tend to display many of the characteristics of the right-hand column of Table 1; and reinforces the cultural perspective which is a key feature of the World Heritage Convention.
Table 1. A New Paradigm for Protected Areas (after Beresford and Phillips, 2000)
As it was: protected areas were Planned and managed against people Run by central government Set aide for conservation Managed without regard to local community Developed separately Managed as islands Established mainly for scenic protection Managed mainly for visitors and tourists Managed reactively within short timescale About protection Viewed primarily as a national asset Viewed exclusively as a national concern As it is becoming: protected areas are Run with, for, and in some cases by local people Run by many partners Run also with social and economic objectives Managed to help meet needs of local people Planned as part of national, regional and international systems Developed as networks (strictly protected areas, buffered and linked by green corridors) Often set up for scientific, economic and cultural reasons Managed with local people more in mind Managed adaptively in long-term perspective Also about restoration and rehabilitation Viewed also as a community asset Viewed also as an international concern
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degree in parallel and have been drawn on in the remainder of this paper. Category V protected areas are concerned with both people and their environment, and with a range of natural and cultural values. They focus on areas where people/nature relationships have produced a landscape with high aesthetic, ecological, biodiversity and/or cultural values, and which retains integrity. Communities, and their traditions, are fundamental to the success of the approach: therefore stakeholder and partnership approaches are required, for example in co-management. Such areas need to recognize the value of, and the importance of supporting, the stewardship role of the private landowner or manager (including that of Land Trusts or similar bodies). Usually they involve management arrangements that are determined by local circumstances and needs, and resolved through decision-making at local government or community levels. Special emphasis is placed on effective land-use planning. The success of such areas depends on the presence of transparent and democratic structures which support peoples active involvement in the shaping of their own environment. They can then bring social, economic and cultural benefits to local communities, and also environmental, cultural, educational and other benefits to a wider public. Well-managed Category V protected areas can offer models of sustainability for wider application elsewhere in rural areas. But, like all protected areas, they require effective management systems, including objective setting, planning, resource allocation, implementation, monitoring, review and feedback. The 1997 UN List contains 3,178 Category V protected areas, covering 676,892 km2 in all. Therefore, worldwide, Category V areas accounted for about 24% in terms of the number of all protected areas and 11% in terms of areas covered. However, there are proportionately many more such areas in Europe, where they account for no less than two-thirds of all the land under protection. In a number of European countries notably the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom at least 10% of the entire land area is protected as Category V; in Austria and Germany it is more than 20% (IUCN, 1998). There is indeed a particular interest in landscape issues in Europe, which has led to the recent adoption of the European Landscape Convention (see Annex 3). Although this does not provide for the designation of sites, it will no doubt further help to raise awareness of landscape topics in this part of the world. The thinking behind Category V protected areas bears some similarity to World Heritage cultural landscapes, and in particular to the sub-category of continuing organically evolved cultural landscape, defined as an area which retains an active social role in contemporary society closely associated with the traditional way of life, and in which the evolutionary process is still in progress. At the same time it exhibits significant material evidence of its evolution over time (UNESCO, 1999).
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But there are also important differences. In protected areas, the natural environment, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem integrity have been the primary emphases. In contrast, the emphasis in cultural landscapes has been on human history, continuity of cultural traditions, and social values and aspirations (Mitchell and Buggey, 2001, p. 35). Moreover, the fundamental criterion for recognition of a World Heritage cultural landscape is that of outstanding universal value. There is less stress placed on outstanding qualities in the case of Category V protected areas, although the areas should certainly be nationally significant to merit protection.4 Table 2 attempts to summarize the main similarities and differences between the two concepts.
maintaining the terraces and irrigation systems. There are lessons to be learned from such land management, underpinned by the cultural tradition of the Ifugao people, for wider application in the rice-growing tropics and beyond. Therefore IUCN and ICOMOS together undertook the original assessment of the nomination of the site in 1995. They also undertook a joint evaluation mission in 2001, which led to the inscription of the terraces on the List of World Heritage in Danger at the Helsinki session of the World Heritage Committee (the first cultural landscape to be so listed). IUCN will continue to take a close interest in the area. Strategies for its future management should draw on experience in other Category V protected areas elsewhere in the world. Examples of ways to bolster the protection of the area are the integration of rice growing with ecotourism, the development of new markets for rice and rice wine from the region, and capacity building among the local community based on traditional values. Many other Category V protected areas contain landscapes that bear a strong imprint of the work of past human generations. As well as other terrace landscapes, there are irrigation systems and other farmland worked in physically adverse conditions, all representing many hundreds of years of perseverance in the struggle to survive. These often have an added significance when they are the creation of the ancestors of the very people who live there and work the land to this day along similar lines. In such cases, the present generation may well have a true stewardship role: inheriting, caring for, and passing on a land whose physical features, and the cultural traditions associated with it, testify to that struggle. Even if few of these areas can aspire to World Heritage status, their management should be guided by many of the same principles that will need to be applied in the Philippines rice terraces.
Case study: the Philippines Rice Terraces The rice terraces were the first site to be included on the World Heritage cultural landscape list under the continuing organically evolved category, indeed they may almost be considered as a model example of this type of area. They are a superb physical creation and a living example of the close links between culture and nature. They are also undeniably dramatically beautiful. But they are also an excellent example of a Category V protected area characterized by an exceptional demonstration of the sustainable use of natural resources (soil, water and vegetation) and of an enduring balance between people and nature. Indeed it is astonishing that the rice terraces have existed on very steep slopes for an estimated 2,000 years, in a region affected by landslides, earthquakes and typhoons. They owe their survival to the strong cultural traditions of the Ifugao people, which reinforce the many communal aspects of growing, harvesting and processing rice, and of
Table 2. Comparison of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes (continuing, organically evolved) and IUCN Category V Protected Areas (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
Feature compared Status Cultural landscapes Operational Guidelines under World Heritage Convention Globally, by the World Heritage Committee People and nature create landscape of outstanding universal value People and nature; cultural values; cultural integrity; authenticity Protection of heritage values, processes and resources Strong community involvement Category V International Framework for Protected Area Management Categories, endorsed by IUCN General Assembly Nationally (or sub-nationally) often through legislation People and nature create landscape of national or sub-national merit deserving protection People and nature; biodiversity; sustainability; ecosystem integrity Protection of the nature/culture balance and associated values and ecological services Strong community involvement
Level of designation Key concept Key principles Main management aims Main management means
4. For a fuller discussion of the relationship of Cultural Landscapes under the World Heritage Convention and Protected Landscapes/IUCN Category V, see Mitchell and Buggey (2000).
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versity. Yet protected areas are also valued as spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic landscapes that inspire and move. The varied expressions of nature found in protected areas lead many to develop a deep personal understanding that all is related. That essential understanding is basic to economics, ecology, physics and spirituality, and many other human pursuits. Yet, it is the personal, gut-level knowing that motivates individuals and communities to actively cultivate harmony with the environment, and with one another. At the international level there has been a reluctance to make explicit, and promote the management of protected areas for non-material values (Task Force website). While this reluctance may be due to growing globalization of the Western way of looking at the world that attaches singular importance to the scientific and technical at the expense of the human, cultural and spiritual, a countertrend is also at work. There is a growing respect for the cultural traditions and political rights of indigenous peoples generally, and an increasing awareness of the importance of local people in determining the success or failure of conservation efforts. It is these forces that have been at work in the parallel way in which the World Heritage Convention has come to see outstanding universal cultural values in certain sites previously inscribed for their natural values alone. Key examples are Tongariro (New Zealand) and Uluru-Kata Tjuta (Australia). Case study: Tongariro (New Zealand) Tongariro is one of the worlds oldest national parks. But for the Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi (Maori) people its importance as a sacred volcanic mountain goes back far further, being feared and revered by them for a thousand years. Conflicting claims to the area were heard in a land court in the early 1880s. In 1887, Chief Te Heuheu offered 2,400 ha of the summits of Tongariro and the neighbouring mountains of Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu to the Crown, with a view to its being treated as a tapu (taboo) place under the protection of Queen Victoria. The Tongariro National Park Act was passed in 1894, but it was not until 1907 that enough land was in Crown title for the park to be gazetted (Thom, 1987). Though ensuing generations of European New Zealanders paid tribute to the generosity of the Maori people in helping the park to come into being, and acknowledged the importance of the area to the Maori people historically, its values throughout much of the twentieth century were seen as essentially natural. Indeed its spectacular scenery, volcanism and glaciology helped to place the Tongariro National Park on the World Heritage List in 1990 (natural criteria (ii) and (iii)). But appreciation had been growing of the mountains living importance to the Maori people. As result, in 1993 the park became the first property to be
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inscribed on the World Heritage List under the revised criteria for cultural landscapes. It was recognized for its associative values: justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent. The volcanic mountains at the heart of the park play a fundamental role through oral tradition in defining and confirming the cultural identity of the Maori people: the two are indissolubly linked. A basic sense of continuity through tupuna (ancestors) is evident in a profound reverence for the mountain peaks. The natural beauty of Tongariro is the spiritual and historical centre of Maori culture. This associative value fulfilled criterion (vi). What has happened at Tongariro is typical of a worldwide development : the increasing recognition given by protected area planners and managers to the cultural values placed on these areas by local people. The formal recognition of the cultural values to the Maori people by the World Heritage Committee should encourage other indigenous groups elsewhere to argue that their traditions too should be properly recognized and respected.
the joint promotion of the IUCN guidelines on the management of Category V protected areas and the World Heritage Centres guidelines on World Heritage cultural landscapes after their publication in the next few months (see above); joint IUCN, ICOMOS and UNESCO study of Category V protected areas that may merit inclusion in the World Heritage List, based on results from global and regional meetings on this subject; the development and dissemination by IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM and UNESCO of case studies on how to maintain and reinvigorate traditional farming systems that are vital to the survival of both Category V protected areas and continuing organically evolved World Heritage cultural landscapes; joint preparation of guidance by IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM and UNESCO on how management lessons learned in both Category V protected areas and continuing organically evolved World Heritage cultural landscapes can be applied more widely in the broader countryside beyond; greater involvement of the IUCN-WCPA Task Force on Non-material Values of Protected Areas in the assessment of cultural landscape nominations in the associative landscape category; production of a short paper by IUCN and UNESCO on the IUCN protected area categorization system and World Heritage sites (going beyond cultural landscapes). This would be similar to a booklet on the relationship between the categories system and Biosphere Reserves (Bridgewater et al., 1996); a joint strategy between IUCN (WCPA and the Commision on Environmental law and the Environmental Law centre), ICOMOS and UNESCO, based on the experience of implementing the World Heritage Convention, on how to promote and implement the recently adopted European Landscape Convention.
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CATEGORY I
Strict Nature Reserve/Wilderness Area: protected area managed mainly for science or wilderness protection
CATEGORY Ia Definition:
Strict Nature Reserve: protected area managed mainly for science Area of land and/or sea possessing some outstanding or representative ecosystems, geological or physiological features and/or species, available primarily for scientific research and/or environmental monitoring. Wilderness Area: protected area managed mainly for wilderness protection Large area of unmodified or slightly modified land, and/or sea, retaining its natural character and influence, without permanent or significant habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural condition. National Park: protected area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation Natural are of land and/or sea, designated to (a) protect the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations; (b) exclude exploitation or occupation inimical to the purposes of designation of the area; and (c) provide a foundation for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities, all of which must be environmentally and culturally compatible. Natural Monument: protected area managed mainly for conservation of specific natural features Area containing one, or more, specific natural or natural/cultural feature which is of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative or aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Habitat/Species Management Area: protected area managed mainly for conservation through management intervention Area of land and/or sea subject to active intervention for management purposes so as to ensure the maintenance of habitats and/or to meet the requirements of specific species. Protected Landscape/Seascape: protected area managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation Area of land, with coast and sea as appropriate, where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant aesthetic, ecological and/or cultural value, and often with high biological diversity. Safeguarding the integrity of this traditional interaction is vital to the protection, maintenance and evolution of such an area. Managed Resource Protected Area: protected area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems Area containing predominantly unmodified natural systems, managed to ensure long-term protection and maintenance of biological diversity, while providing at the same time a sustainable flow of natural products and services to meet community needs.
CATEGORY 1b Definition:
CATEGORY II Definition:
CATEGORY IV Definition:
CATEGORY V Definition:
CATEGORY VI Definition:
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ANNEX 2 IUCN Procedures for Identifying Natural Values in Cultural Landscapes (extract from draft revised Operational Guidelines, June 2002)
1. Properties nominated as cultural landscapes are evaluated under criteria (i)(vi) and therefore ICOMOS carries out the technical evaluation. However, IUCN is often called upon by ICOMOS to review the natural value (criteria (vii)(ix)) and management of cultural landscapes. This has been the subject of an agreement between the Advisory Bodies. In some cases, a joint mission is required. When assisting ICOMOS in the review of cultural landscapes, IUCN is guided by the paper The Assessment of Natural and Cultural Value in Cultural Landscapes which has been summarized below.
5. The various natural qualities of cultural landscapes are summarized : Cultural landscapes often reflect specific techniques of sustainable land-use, considering the characteristics and limits of the natural environment they are established in, and a specific spiritual relationship to nature. Protection of cultural landscapes can contribute to modern techniques of sustainable land-use and can maintain or enhance natural values in the landscape. The continued existence of traditional forms of land-use supports biological diversity in many regions of the world. The protection of traditional cultural landscapes is therefore helpful in maintaining biological diversity 6. In addition to these important aspects, there may also be other natural qualities apparent in a cultural landscape: outstanding natural beauty and aesthetic values. Some natural World Heritage properties have been inscribed under natural criterion (iii) from the World Heritage Operational Guidelines, as areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. In the case of cultural landscape, such values would derive as much from the contrast, and/or interaction, between the works of nature and of humankind as from the intrinsic quality of the natural features; informative evidence of a uniquely significant past relationship between humanity and nature. This may have been a balanced and sustainable relationship, but it may also have been a negative relationship in which a civilization collapsed after unsustainable exploitation of natural resources; important biodiversity resources may be found both in wild species of fauna and flora, and in domesticated animals and cultivated crops. Natural Considerations for Assessing Cultural Landscapes 7. Against this background, IUCN have the following considerations in mind when assessing cultural landscapes: (a) conservation of natural and semi-natural ecosystems, and of wild species of fauna and flora and in particular whether the cultural landscape is an outstanding example of how traditional land-use patterns can: contribute to the protection of natural ecosystems (e.g. by providing for the protection of watershed forests); help protect wild species of fauna or flora; help protect genetic diversity within wild species; create semi-natural habitats of great importance to biodiversity, i.e. manipulated ecosystems with wellstructured and functional interactions between its living components. (b) conservation of biodiversity within farming systems and in particular whether the cultural landscape is an outstanding example of how traditional farm systems can:
Background
2. The inclusion of cultural landscapes within the scope of the World Heritage Convention in 1993 was an important step in recognizing the complex and often mutually supportive role of nature and culture, and helped to bring the natural and cultural elements of the Convention closer together. While cultural landscapes are considered under the cultural rather than the natural criteria, IUCN none the less played an important role in introducing this new concept to the Convention and welcomed this development. Assessment of Natural and Cultural Value in Cultural Landscapes 3. Cultural landscapes are designated under Article 1 of the Convention concerning cultural properties. Cultural landscapes embrace a diversity of manifestations of the interaction between humankind and its natural environment. However, while the criteria for assessing the cultural value of this interaction are clear and explicit, those for the natural value are not. Criteria developed specifically for natural properties are of limited value in assessing nominations for cultural landscapes (although natural criterion (iii), concerning areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance, is relevant to the assessment of cultural landscapes). The guidance below, developed by IUCN, is used to identify the extent of IUCNs interest in cultural landscapes, which are properties that will be formally inscribed only under cultural criteria. Nature in Cultural Landscapes 4. The close interest that IUCN has in cultural landscapes derives from the importance of many cultural landscapes for nature conservation and evolution of nature and natural resources. While this may be a characteristic of any of the types of cultural landscape, in practice it is likely to be most important in the case of continuing, organically evolved landscapes. On the other hand, there will be some cultural landscapes in which IUCNs interest will be small or non-existent.
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develop and/or conserve a wide range of varieties of domesticated livestock; develop and/or conserve a wide range of varieties of cultivated crops, such as cereals, fruit or root vegetables; respect the productive capability of land; conserve the quality and quantity of soil; manage and safeguard water quality; manage streams and rivers so as to reduce damaging floods and runoff, maintain plant cover; restore vegetation, soils and sources of water. (c) examples of sustainable land-use and in particular whether the land-use practices are an outstanding example of how to: respect the productive capability of land; conserve the quality and quantity of soil; manage and safeguard water quality; manage streams and rivers so as to reduce damaging floods and runoff; maintain plant cover; restore vegetation, soils and sources of water. (d) enhancement of scenic beauty: that is whether the cultural landscape has outstanding scenic qualities, deriving as much from the contrast and/or interaction between the works of nature and humanity as from the intrinsic quality of the natural features themselves. (e) the presence of an outstanding ex situ collection of plants (herbarium, botanic gardens) or of fauna (e.g. collection of waterfowl).
(f) evidence of an outstanding example of humanitys interrelationship with nature. IUCN may be interested if there is evidence of either a successful or failed relationship between a past civilization and the natural resources on which it depended. (g) the site of some historically significant discovery in the natural sciences, i.e. where the associative value derives from such a discovery. 8. The following table places each of the above considerations against the categories of cultural landscapes, thereby indicating where they are most likely to occur. The absence of a consideration does not mean that it will never be relevant in the landscape type concerned, but that it would not normally be significant. 9. Finally, it should be added that other factors, e.g. with regard to integrity, and the existence of a management plan and of long-term legislative, regulatory or institutional protection, are as relevant to IUCN in examining cultural landscapes as in the assessment of natural properties. In other words, IUCN looks for evidence that the integrity of the property is well protected, and that there are effective management policies in place that can retain or restore the essential qualities of the cultural landscape. However, the concept of integrity has a different application for lived-in landscapes. It is integrity of the relationship with nature that matters, rather than the integrity of nature itself.
Natural considerations most likely to be relevant (see paragraph 7 above) (e) (d) (f) (g)
Designed landscape Organically evolving landscape continuous Organically evolving landscape fossil Associative landscape
(a) (a)
(b)
(c)
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References
BELTRAN, J. (ed.). 2000. Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and protected areas Principles, Guidelines and Case Studies, Gland, Switzerland/Cambridge, UK, World Conservation Union. BERESFORD, M.; PHILLIPS, A. 2000. Protected Landscapes A Conservation Model for the 21st Century, The George Wright Forum, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2000. BERNBAUM, E. 1997. Sacred Mountains of the World, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, USA. BRIDGEWATER, P.; PHILLIPS, A.; GREEN, M.; AMOS, B. 1996. Biosphere Reserves and the IUCN System of Protected Area Management Categories, UNESCO. IUCN. 1994. Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories, IUCN, Gland Switzerland and Cambridge UK. . 1998. United Nations List of Protected Areas: 1997. Gland, Switzerland/Cambridge, UK, World Conservation Union. LENNON, J. (ed.). In press. Management Guidelines for World Heritage Cultural Landscapes. ICCROM, Rome. MITCHELL, N.; BUGGEY, S. 2001. Category V protected landscapes in relation to World Heritage cultural landscapes: taking advantage of diverse approaches. In: Conservation Study Institute et al., Landscape Conservation an International Working Session on the Stewardship of Protected Landscapes. Woodstock, Vt., Conservation Study Institute. PHILLIPS, A. 2002. Management Guidelines for IUCN Category V Protected Areas Protected Landscapes/Seascapes. Gland, Switzerland/Cambridge, UK, World Conservation Union. THOM, D. 1987. Heritage of the Parks of the People. Auckland, Landsdowne Press. UNESCO. 1999. Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
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World Headquarters: IFLA, 4 rue Hardy, RP No. 914, F78009 Versailles Cedex, France The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) was founded in 1948 in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is a democratic, non-profit, non-political, non-governmental organization representing landscape architects in more than sixty countries around the world. IFLA is the umbrella organization of practically all nationally organized landscape architects, and as such not only promotes the highest possible standards in the practice of landscape architecture, landscape planning and landscape management, including environmental planning, but also strives for better education in landscape architecture, through the international exchange of knowledge, skills and experience, especially in those countries where the profession is not yet well established. IFLA stands for high quality in the built and natural environment, and by involving science, technology and the arts in a holistic approach, in co-operation with other planning and design professions, works towards a socially, culturally and environmentally sustainable development of built-up areas, as well as a sound stewardship of the natural environment, paying respect to the planets diverse and vulnerable ecological systems. IFLA is organized into three regions (East comprising Asia and Australia/New Zealand, Central representing Europe and Africa, and West including North, Central and South America), each with its own regional leadership, headed by a vice-president. On the global scale, the President (currently Ms Martha Fajardo of Bogot, Colombia), Secretary-General (Dr Diane Menzies of Christchurch, New Zealand) and Treasurer (Ms Tay Bee Choo of Singapore) are joined by the vice-presidents of the three regions (James Hayter, Australia; Jeppe Anderson, Denmark; Prof. James Taylor, Canada) to form the Executive Committee. The highest legislative body of IFLA is the World Council, in which each member has one vote.
Through its constitutional bodies, international committees and task forces, IFLA has drawn up procedures on many important subjects, such as a professional code of ethics, regulations for the holding of international design and planning competitions, and relevant policy matters. By holding conferences and seminars as well as an annual World Congress, IFLA advances the exchange of scientific knowledge, technological expertise and cutting-edge design around the world. One of the highlights and a powerful incentive for the young generation of landscape students is the IFLA/UNESCO Prize in Landscape Architecture which is awarded annually in connection with the World Congress to the winner of a design competition open to all students of landscape architecture worldwide.
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Europe
The main objectives of the Council of Europe are to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law and to seek common solutions to the main problems facing European society today. The Organization is active in environment protection and in promoting sustainable development in line with the Recommendation Rec (2002) 1 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to Member States on the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Spatial Development of the European Continent, previously adopted by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (CEMAT) at Hanover on 8 September 2000. These seek to protect Europeans quality of life and well-being taking into account landscape, cultural and natural values.1
Today, the advances of production techniques in agriculture, forestry, industry and mining, together with the practices followed in town and country planning, transport networks, tourism and recreation, and more generally the global economic changes, have in very many cases led to degradation, debasement or transformation of landscapes. While each citizen must of course contribute to preserving the quality of landscape, it is the responsibility of the public authorities to define the general framework in which this quality can be secured. The Convention lays down the general legal principles, which should guide the adoption of national and community landscape policies and the establishment of international co-operation in this field.
1. Concerning the natural and cultural heritage, see the other conventions of the Council of Europe: Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern, 19 September 1979), the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (Granada, 3 October 1985) and the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (London, 6 May 1969; revised, Valetta, 16 January 1992).
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Europe
substantively. The two Conventions have different purposes, as do the organizations under whose auspices they were drawn up. One is regional in scope, the other worldwide. The Council of Europe Convention can be regarded as complementary to the UNESCO one. As regards substantive scope, the Council of Europe Convention covers all landscapes, even those that are not of outstanding universal value, but does not deal with historic monuments, unlike the UNESCO Convention. Similarly, its main objective is not to draw up a list of assets of exceptional universal value, but to introduce protection, management and planning rules for all landscape based on a set of principles. school and university courses which, in the relevant subject areas, cover landscape-related values and questions of landscape protection, management and planning; identification and assessment: mobilizing those concerned with a view to improving knowledge of landscapes, and guiding the work of landscape identification and assessment through exchanges of experience and methods arranged between the Parties at European level; setting landscape quality objectives: defining quality objectives for the landscapes which have been identified and assessed after public consultation; implementation of landscape polices: introducing policy instruments for the protection, management and/or planning of landscapes. Terms used in the Convention are defined so as to ensure uniform interpretation: landscape, landscape policy, landscape quality objective, landscape protection, landscape management and landscape planning. International Measures: European Co-operation The Contracting Parties also undertake to co-operate at international level in catering for the landscape dimension in international policies and programmes, and to recommend as appropriate the inclusion of landscape considerations in these policies and programmes. They accordingly undertake to co-operate in respect of technical and scientific assistance and exchange of landscape specialists for training and information, and to exchange information on all questions covered by the Convention. Transfrontier landscapes are covered by a specific provision: the Contracting Parties undertake to encourage transfrontier co-operation at local and regional level and, wherever necessary, to prepare and implement joint landscape programmes.
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Europe
Contemporary lifestyles are such that people aspire more and more to rediscover an unspoiled setting and to preserve their natural as well as cultural heritage. By means of this growing social demand, landscape gains or regains prestige and begins to be perceived as a major component of environmental policies. It also represents a major asset for regional development in the tourist sector. The Convention raises great hopes on the issues of recognizing the importance and value of landscapes and reconciling the right to achieve profitability with the right to enjoy well-being, health and scenic beauty. A first Conference of Contracting and Signatory States of the Convention was organized in Strasbourg on 22 and 23 November 2001 in order to urge the signature and/or ratification of the Convention and to consider the effective implementation of the Convention after its entry into force. Five workshops on the implementation of the Convention were also organized in Strasbourg on 23 and 24 May 2002 in order to discuss and present concrete examples and experiences on the following themes: Landscape policies: the contribution to the well-being of European citizens and to sustainable development social, economic, cultural and ecological approaches; Landscape identification, evaluation and quality objectives, using cultural and natural resources; Awareness-raising, training and education; Innovative tools for the protection, management and planning of landscape; Landscape Award. The Second Conference of Contracting and Signatories States was held from 28 to 29 November 2002 in Strasbourg.
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Europe
Landscape and Cultural Landscape: European Landscape Convention and UNESCO Policy
Lionella Scazzosi
Some Remarks on the Concept of Landscape
Today, particularly in Europe, the issue of landscape presents new features in comparison with the past: it is undergoing a rapid and wide-ranging evolution and experimentation, characterized by initiatives both cultural (meetings, research, publications, etc.) and legal and administrative (new laws, as in France; new standards, guidelines and actions, as in Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom). The meaning of the term landscape has become broader and richer than that of a view or panorama, which had characterized many national protection laws and policies until the mid-twentieth century, and that of environment or nature, to which it has often been limited during the recent years of environmentalist struggles. Landscape protection roots and branches are different in the various European countries: in the late 1950s, in many countries and especially in Northern Europe, protection almost exclusively concerned naturalistic values and environmental and ecological problems; while in some, especially in Southern Europe, it stressed the formal, architectural aspects of the places; and in others, the economic-productive and recreational aspects were paramount. Now however special attention is being paid, although in different ways and through various measures, to landscape as an archive of human and natural historic traces, that is to say a cultural good (the Krakow 2000 Charter, drawn up by ICOMOS, the most recent treatise on safeguarding historic and cultural heritage, for the first time also deals with landscape). In this shrewder cultural elaboration and in policies, we can see a growing awareness (although with some contradictions) that landscape, environment, nature do not correspond to different objects, but to different concepts, i.e. different ways of reading, planning and managing (as if we used each time specific coloured spectacles) a single broad object: the place where people live. Consequently, any place can be read for the cultural, natural and environmental meanings and values it may have and for the specific problems such viewpoints raise, although there may be differences from place to place (significantly enough, after the European Landscape Convention, a Charter for environment protection and sustainable development is being defined at the European Council). Thus it does not make sense, theoretically, to distinguish cultural landscapes (but also historic landscapes, anthropic landscapes, etc.) from natural landscapes, as they all can be read for their cultural and natural meanings: they are all landscapes. Landscape: Handmade Objects and Architecture Landscape is the result of a secular building activity carried out mainly by the farmers and breeders who have used the land, and of vast joint actions using natural materials such as vegetation, water or earth, that may result in terracing which structures many hillsides for the cultivation of vines, olives, fruit trees, chestnuts; complex water canalization systems allowing plains to be cultivated; deforestation and systems of production and exploitation of the highlands to allow cattle breeding, with seasonal movements of people and animals towards higher lands to exploit forest, vegetation and fauna; road networks to ensure communications for trade, productive, military, religious and other purposes; a network of religious, military or other types of handmade objects. In addition, more recent transformations sometimes destruct and distort cultural heritage, and sometimes respect the identity of the places and pre-existences. 1. When we use the term landscape, we stress the relation between the world and ourselves: a window through which we can look at he world with the eyes of our cultural tradition (a significant contribution is made by current philosophical thought on this issue). 2. Simultaneously, places reveal themselves in their physicality, as a large and complex handmade object from the Latin manufactus, a term that underlines the material and building techniques and the result of the actions of man and nature through an indissoluble network, continuously built and transformed over the centuries), but also as a work of architecture (a term that stresses the aspects of the formal and functional organization of space). 3. Places are, for us, a document full of material and immaterial traces of man and natures history. In this sense they are a vast archive, available to anyone willing and able to read it, that allows us to improve knowledge of culture, techniques, ways of life, as well as the nature, climate and vegetation of the past. They are a palimpsest (not a simple stratification of historical evidence), i.e. a single text weaving the evidence from past eras in with those being left gradually by the present and which continually modify it. 4. Places are an open work, being continuously transformed under the action of nature and man: these act by adding, abandoning, erasing or even overlapping, but always transforming (mainly through small, detailed but continuous actions), either physically or even simply finding a meaning for what has come down to us; an inevitable and necessary process.
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International and National Landscape Policies
Through landscape, in Europe today people are expressing their demand and aspiration for the quality of all living places and, at the same time, for the safeguard of their own cultural identity, by defending or regaining all specificities, even in the ongoing process of unification. The present concern for landscape is not fortuitous, if we consider that Europe has just begun to really deal with the problem of building its own national identity and that, in the past, landscape played a substantial role, equal to the role of monuments, in building some national identities, such as in Switzerland or the United States during the nineteenth century. The European Landscape Convention reflects the cultural and political climate that has been developing over the past decades, as it clearly emerges from the definition of landscape proposed in Article 1a1 and the identification of the field of application, in Article 2.2 Indeed, the Convention establishes that nature and culture represent aspects which are contemporaneously present on any territory and makes no distinction between what is considered as natural and what is considered as artificial (it never uses the expression cultural landscape, but only the term landscape). Its field of interest is not limited to some landscapes (the ones that are considered cultural, historical or natural, or the exceptional ones), but concerns the whole of European landscapes, either urban or suburban areas, agricultural or naturalistic areas, both extraordinary and ordinary. It demands policies, not only protection policies for the existing landscapes enjoying a recognized quality, but also policies to protect new quality landscapes, in innovations of profoundly transforming areas and in the restoration of decayed areas (mines, shabby industrial areas, urban outskirts and fringe areas): the existent ones and the future ones. This is a deep conceptual change that has substantial operational consequences (from the modalities of knowledge, to those of managing and planning the transformations of the sites). The distinction between cultural landscapes and natural landscapes, introduced by culture, documents and procedures, both at an international level (UNESCO, IUCN, etc.) and in the various countries (natural parks, protected areas, protected landscapes, etc.), is the outcome of policies for the safeguarding of the quality of sites, which have mainly defensive tools: a selective defence of a few parts of the territory, enjoying an exceptional feature in comparison with the rest of it, which is implicitly left to a lesser quality control. The roots of these policies are to be found in the early nineteenth century, in the cultural and standard tradition of protecting monuments (from the Restoration Charters, to national protection laws of many countries such as France and Italy, dating back to the first decades of the century). The Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 16 November 1972. It refers to protection of monuments both as single works of architecture and as compounded groups of architectural buildings, and to sites considered as artefacts of man and nature. Interestingly enough, although the Convention divides the sites into cultural heritage or natural heritage, the reasons for the interest of a site may be, even for those classified as natural, the acknowledgement of a value not only naturalistic and scientific, but also cultural (value from the aesthetic or natural beauty point of view) (Articles 1 and 2), as in French and Italian law, and in part of Dutch law, in the 1930s. In fact, the same applies to the definition of the categories of sites set up by ICOMOS (1972). Although this long-lasting approach still has a certain validity for operational goals, it is under discussion today because of its limitations as regards new problems of contemporaneity: it lacks efficiency in comparison with dynamic forms of protection (being characterized by programmes and actions to implement choices, by aids and supports as well as by standards for the genuine safeguarding of features to be protected, all typical of static protection) and with the growing necessity to ensure the quality of both the landscape and the environment, diffused over the whole territory, including ordinary places. Moreover, the fact that natural aspects and cultural aspects are recognized in all sites, which characterizes the particular concept of landscape considered in the European Landscape Convention, usually brings into play a long procedure, both cognitive and operational, that many consider negative today. According to this procedure, in the so-called natural sites, the traces left by human history (when they have not been voluntarily destroyed, as is sometimes the case) should not be taken into account and should only be partially protected, because they are considered to be contrary to naturalistic values; and vice versa, in the so-called cultural sites, the natural elements that time has brought and that represent one of the most innovative values of contemporary culture are often not tolerated. The recent statement of views of UNESCO and IUCN on the difficulties and contradictions that such a rigid division entails in the management of protected sites shows how generalized the question is, not only in European but in the world culture, and demonstrates that the use of a category of mixed sites is insufficient to solve the problem.
1. 1. Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. 2. this Convention applies to the entire territory of the Parties and covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas. It includes land, inland water and marine areas. It concerns landscapes that might be considered outstanding as well as everyday or degraded landscapes.
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Open Questions: to Know and Assess in Order to Protect, Innovate and Manage in a Compatible Way
Landscape Reading and Assessing Methods If we want to protect we have to know: this is considered to be the first act required in any policy of protection and management of historical, architectural, landscape and natural heritage. Nevertheless, there is no unanimously recognized method of studying, identifying and describing landscapes; nor even a system of assessing landscape components, that has been able to find general consent in the present organization of cultures and policies. From the procedures and experimentation that are being developed in many countries, we see a growing concern to thoroughly analyse the methods of reading the historic-cultural and formal features of landscapes and their interaction with the natural features and with ecological and environmental problems (which enjoy a wealth of experience in reading and management methodologies). Moreover, study and comparison between the landscape reading and assessing methods in different countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, etc.) demonstrate a close relation between the methods of knowing places and the goals and tools of protection and management policies. Some points that are today already under study should be further analysed and experimented: 1. The growing concern for landscape as an archive of traces of human and natural history and of living places, considered as a guarantee for the conservation of peoples identity, entails the awareness that we must surpass the visual reading methods still prevalent and integrate them with historical studies. Nevertheless, the latter often limit themselves to reading landscapes according to eras and sweeping geographical and cultural invariants; they seldom look for traces, even small ones, left by historical events; they sometimes use the simple though detailed inventory of the historic objects still on the territory, according to type (churches, castles, villas, historic centres and settlements, gardens, antique and industrial archaeology, rural architecture), which includes the latest enlargements of the concept of historical heritage (centuriations, historic streets, terracing, handmade objects and defensive sites), considering the major goods as well as minor and diffused ones, while also taking into account (rarely) the context. 2. Inherited landscapes are not the mere sum of objects, but are made of what remains from the numerous spatial and functional systems: they are not a set of points, lines or areas (to form a mere data bank), but a system of visual, spatial, symbolic, and also functional and environmental and other relations, which link together points, lines and areas and have to be understood and managed as a unity (e.g. Venice and its lagoon; historic villas with their gardens, rural villages and settlements, landed properties; the farm with agricultural cottages of residence and production, related open spaces, such as vegetable gardens, farmyards, and cultivated agricultural lands, such as vineyards, sowable lands and woods). To date, we only know of a few examples of landscape reading according to systems. This method supposes a thorough analysis of the theme of landscape unity, surpassing the conception that defines landscape as a puzzle of homogeneous areas: such unities may appear sometimes as areas (e.g. a rural settlement and its farms), other times as a network of links between non-contiguous elements (e.g. systems of religious major and minor handmade objects), or even as a linear element (e.g. historic streets and their historic facilities handmade objects); they may each time intermingle and overlap, completely or partially, on a single territory. 3. There are studies, although rare and unsystematic, on the symbolic meanings that sites may have for the culture of populations, who sometimes transform them into places of memory true monumenta even if they lack specific handmade objects (places of battle, sites that are the object of learned representations and descriptions, sites linked to religious meanings and traditions, ceremonials, etc.) and that often add to other meanings and values. Similarly, there are few methodologies for understanding, in each site, the cultural lens that has been historically developed, even unconsciously, which we use to read the landscape and its values. 4. Inherited landscapes are complex handmade objects, in particular the rural ones, resulting from widespread, diffused, minute and continuous works of building and maintenance, carried out by many operators. There is a growing demand for diffused and systematic survey work, in detail, about design, materials, building techniques, etc., according to the elements, such as terracing, canalizations, rows and hedges, itineraries, that often structure entire landscapes. These are true historic archaeological handmade objects, where we need to know the traditional technical solutions (not obsolete but containing expertise and valuable advice), and to reuse them together with modern ones, adapting them to the present conditions of life and work, which generally greatly differ from the rural world, where the human labour that produced them is no longer conceivable. Assessing Landscape We may say that there are some constants, deeply rooted in present culture, but there are also some issues to be theoretically thoroughly analysed and tested, either when looking at a single site or when comparing different sites: 1. The value of documentation for the collective memory acknowledged to handmade objects of the past (buildings, urban centres, gardens) may also be used for landscapes, in all their material and immaterial components. The value of documentation applies to all the evidence of human and natural history, even the most recent, but what stands as a historic document are the sites and
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handmade objects where we acknowledge features that are no longer contemporaneous. The persistence of past traces in the palimpsest of the present appears, in different ways and measures, in the design, the matter, the uses, and, in the case of landscape, it does not only apply to any single handmade object, but also to the relations between them, i.e. any landscape spatial and functional system. 2. The modalities of persistence contribute to define the antiquity feature, i.e. the immediate readability of the non-contemporaneity of the work, that reveals itself mainly through the persistence of materials and techniques of the past, as well as design and uses, to the degree that the persistence is complex and structured. The use of terms such as historic substance, integrity, or authenticity, in various countries and international documents, shows the existence of a diffused concern for that kind of value, even though there is no adequate definition of the implications for the modalities of knowledge, protection and management of the single components and of the sites as a whole. 3. A particular and rather recent assessment is, as we said before, the acknowledgment of concern for sites that are rich in symbols, even without any specific handmade object. 4. While in the case of urban buildings and single architectural handmade objects, the reading and assessing of persistent elements is fairly well documented, in the case of landscapes there needs to be more theoretical, methodological and experimental thorough analyses, bearing in mind the existing procedures (e.g. guidelines for reading and assessing cultural landscapes in various countries) and case studies. We need to reflect on concepts such as authenticity, integrity and completeness, knowing that landscapes (and we should say like all handmade objects) are works under continuous and inevitable transformation, and for this reason we cannot transfer (although this often occurs), without analysing thoroughly, precisely and in context, terms such as restoration, repair, conservation and protection, that come from the culture of building and monument restoration and have developed a long semantic tradition. Concepts such as alteration, continuity, overlapping, contrast/harmony and decontextualization refer, on the contrary, to problems linked to the relation between new achievements and old ones: this is considered to be a fundamental issue in most of the international procedures and experimentation, and is even leading to interventions in the legal field (laws on the quality of architecture, in France, Italy, etc.). In this case too, there should be a thorough methodological and experimental analysis: we should reverse the logic of the innovation project (that tends to concentrate its efforts mainly on the definition of answers to the requests of new uses and new forms, and to consider the site where it applies as a mere support or container), with a different logic that would be founded on the accurate, timely and detailed knowledge of pre-existing sites and try to insert new choices and forms in a compatible way that would respect what has reached us (but also contemporary projectual goals, i.e. avoiding mimicry, false reconstructions or freezing). 5. We should reflect on the issue of indicators for landscape assessment: the experiments carried out over the past decades, which used assessment indicators and methods based on a system of points and scales of value for elements or parts of a territory, have had substantial limitations for some time. It is now even more obvious that, for historical and cultural values, we cannot use quantitative indicators based on principles and methods similar to those used for assessing interest in nature or ecological-environmental problems; on the contrary we need (and in this perspective, some experiences and experimentations are under development) to work on the description of the reasons for concern for the sites and handmade objects: according to specific features (rarity, extent, locality, connection with other systems, state of conservation and antiquity value, visual impact) or according to motives linked to state of availability/opportunity/potential for enhancement, reuse, etc. A broad, structured and timely description of the features of sites and handmade objects and of the numerous values they could receive from the various points of view characterizing the present culture, would allow a choice of protection, plans and programmes of action; moreover, it would enhance communication with users in a more efficient way, through a synthesis of graduated opinions (e.g. using value scales such as high, medium, low). 6. There is a conceptual difference (and thus a need for specific cognitive procedures and documents) between assessments of potentialities and those of limitations in the use of landscape, which are mainly used for projectual goals: from fragility to economic value, from vitality to specific potentialities (e.g. stillness, wilderness). Ecological-naturalistic features and potentialities of a territory have, as we know, their own and well-experimented procedures and tools: the results intermingle with those emerging from the reading of historical and architectural aspects, to define the plans and programmes for site management. The Process of Reading and Assessing Landscapes The tools for reading and assessing landscapes are bound to take into account the complexity that characterizes our historical period. Any reading, any assessment, represents a critical process, submitted to changes: we know when it begins but not when it ends, as new objects of concern are added, either due to the changes, discoveries and elaborations of culture, memory and history, or because the methods of knowing the territory change, new sources of documentation are found, new researchers appear. Moreover, the values and potentialities that society and culture attribute to landscape elements change over time. In all landscapes, whether cultural or natural, extraordinary, ordinary or decayed, protected or not, we should have a global projectual approach able to know, respect and enhance all traces inherited from the past through the
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work of man, the naturalistic values, and contemporary additions of quality; but also able to reuse the decayed episodes and add quality to parts that have been deprived of it, such as urban fringes, or that have partially lost it, such as industrialized agricultural areas. This applies to the whole territory and inside each individual site. Communicating Landscapes The high number of operators (farmers, technicians, companies, inhabitants, administrators) and the breadth of the object require that the protection of landscape values and the management of changes should take place in a diffused manner, with general awareness and consent about the various meanings (historical, cultural, architectural, naturalistic) that landscape has for people, and their potential value as an economic resource and social and individual utility. The aim of cognitive tools is not only to allow informed government decisions, but also to communicate site values and educate people to respect them. For this reason, communicating knowledge and assessments must be an integral and coherent part of preserving, planning, enhancing and managing landscape, on whatever scale. the sites to build opportunities and incentives, sometimes fundamental, for theoretical, methodological and experimental procedures: they are designed as virtual laboratories although they enjoy a special and privileged situation in comparison with the rest of the territory and they underline the features and problems of any wide-open museum, to which they are compared. The results may be useful in other cases. For example, think of the contribution that stressing issues of good management (requiring the setting up of tools for planning, administration and management) as UNESCO has done to help sites be recognized as World Heritage and to keep them on the List, can give to many countries that have not developed an active protection culture and policy. The requests to UNESCO from various parts of the world to inscribe new sites on the World Heritage List are creating new problems and have already entailed the definition of new categories (associative landscapes, linear landscapes, etc.). Our period of history is probably only seeing the beginning of a process of redefining conceptual tools and meanings related to landscape. The cultural and political line expressed by the European Landscape Convention (though there are and will be different interpretations by each national reality) may be an additional benchmark, useful, both at a theoretical and operational level, for the whole cultural elaboration on landscape, inside and outside Europe. In a period of substantial territorial, economic and political changes like this, the issue of landscape is also playing the role of a mirror, where populations can look for their own identity and specificity, so that changes can occur on the basis of peoples awareness of their own past, while respecting and enhancing the differences between one place and another.
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This world is a system of invisible things that are clearly seen, or King James Version, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen Romans 1: 19/20 Landscape: Present Questions and Problems
Landscape has over the last ten years become a core topic in the debate about country and territory planning, particularly in Europe. In 1992 the importance of cultural landscapes was recognized on an international scale with their inclusion in the World Heritage Convention. Eight years later, in 2000, the Council of Europe adopted a European Landscape Convention and presented it to member states for adoption. In Italy, the Italian Society of Town and City Planners (SIU) dedicated its annual congresses for two years running (2002 and 2003) to the theme of landscape. UNESCOs World Heritage List includes cultural landscapes recognized as having a universal value for which public institutions are responsible in terms of conservation policy. Thirty landscapes are listed, twenty-one of which are situated in Europe. The European Landscape Convention assigns landscape status to the territory of the European Union as a whole but categorizes territory into three landscape types: landscape of considerable importance, ordinary landscape, and degraded landscape. Related policy choices mean not only conservation but also ordinary landscape planning, the recovery of degraded areas and the creation of new landscapes. In each case landscape policy has to take into consideration the structure of the natural environment and the legacy of history, both of which become key factors in conservation and development.1 If we consider landscape, territory is viewed differently and this in itself represents a significant and epoch-marking change in society. Landscape today continues to contain values that have been lost in the city. There are the remains of environmental resources that are no longer to be found in the city. The landscape reveals the presence of a nature domesticated yet not rejected; there are still legible forms of the historical and cultural landscape that represent reassuring worlds, thanks to an identity that derives from both the stratification of spontaneous knowledge and ample studies which have described personalities and investigated their histories. At the end of the civic process that led to the development of the industrial city, we look at the landscape in search of answers that the city cannot provide. The answers, however, do not lie in an evocation of history but rather in a projection into the future. With the end of the phase of industrial development in European territory and society, after two centuries during which economic and productive models enjoyed almost total dominance, landscape policies introduce a vast reign of collective imagination and of quality without a name. The collective imagination stems from daily experience and cannot be explained according to the canons of logic or classical rationalism; it refers to emotion and feelings rather than reasoning or ideological conviction. Today this collective imagination, rather than traditional forms of social organization, is one of the most formidable factors of community cohesion made up by cultural interests and styles. Qualitative terms cannot be fully described objectively, their evaluation does not respond only to physiological or functional criteria as it brings into play perception as a filter. Nature here is subjective and intercultural with the ample space this gives to intangible factors, which cannot be easily evaluated. However, these considerations should not lead us into thinking that these landscape values are only immaterial. A beautiful landscape offers important possibilities for the development of new economic opportunities for tourism and leisure. In this case the future can be multifaceted: on the one hand it releases its resources for conservation, while on the other, tourism, if not governed and measured, can become a risk factor that damages the integrity and authenticity of the landscape. We instinctively associate landscape with the awareness of having a presence in the world by means of our sense of vision, by intuitive correspondence of aesthetic nature, by image-structured knowledge. An awareness of landscape has only been acquired relatively recently by Western culture, as has aesthetics, the latter a philosophical discipline that studies sensitive knowledge of the world and which often has been associated with consideration of the landscape. Even though in recent decades part of landscape studies has followed a pathway typically associated with the natural sciences, the definitions chosen by both the World
1. UNESCOs World Heritage Convention and the Council of Europes European Landscape Convention approach landscape differently: the World Heritage List contains cultural landscapes considered as having universal value; the European Landscape Convention considers all European territory as landscape. In both cases landscape is regarded as the result of the relationship between man and nature and the evidence of its historical evolution. In the first case, policy and instruments are oriented towards the conservation and management of landscape considered to be of exceptional value. In the second case, policy and instruments also aim at the renewal of degraded landscapes and the construction of new ones.
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Heritage Convention and the European Landscape Convention refer to the landscape as an entity with a wider cultural value. This approach stems from the fact that history and nature are in symbiosis, a relation perceived by local communities and inhabitants.2 The landscape is not a transparent entity with regard to reality. Images seen do not have a direct, objective relation to those who see them. Nature is not uncontaminated and the deposits of history are not neutral in relation to the person who views them. The relation between observer and observed is intermediated by cultural models that capture perception, adapting and deforming it. Contemplation, and not reason, allows access to feelings that can be shared by others. Knowledge related to sensibility (shall we call this knowledge aesthetics?), experience and intuition generate empathy, shareable with others, and inter-subjective perception. The latter is imbued with an ethical value that binds a community together. Running through not only the World Heritage List of cultural landscapes but also the tentative lists, two things become apparent. The first is that the majority of sites are in Europe; the second is that, to some European experts, some of the non-European sites could appear to be classifiable as natural rather than cultural heritage sites. In the light of this, it seems that the cultural models that guide perception are as yet not sufficiently explicit for them to be easily compared. At this stage a more explicit cultural model could lead to heightened intercultural understanding.3 Landscape is a cultural entity that cannot be tied down to objective parameters that are valid for all; it equally cannot be defined exclusively according to rational parameters deriving from a universal logic, just as it escapes from a functional framework in which landscape has an immediately practical function. Consequently, those responsible for the conservation and management of landscape have to face some problems which are new as far as country and regional planning is concerned. A first series of problems concerns the creation of knowledge required by institutions in guaranteeing the conservation of cultural landscapes. I believe that at present there are no established criteria and categories for the evaluation of the quality of the landscape, its universality and shared inter-subjectivity. To date, knowledge and representations have not been able to render explicitly the historic processes of perception and evaluation established in landscape forms and cultural models that have given the landscape its form. In other words, we are unable to evaluate the integrity and authenticity of the landscape in a way that is not permeated by the presumption of universal objectivity on the one hand, or the lack of substance of an individual judgment on the other. So far we have no methods, instruments or procedures that have been tested in order to formalize an adequate consideration and appreciation of the community and the perception of populations.4 A second series of problems concerns integration: the theoretical and methodological integration of different knowledge (about nature and about history) within a shared cultural model, and the integration of policies and instruments utilized in landscape and territory government. Different visions that are the fruit of different perceptions converge in the landscape. In our case, it is important to integrate the perception of experts with that of inhabitants and local communities. In the landscape, elements that belong to the world of nature interact with elements belonging to the history of human settlements. They are often the object of separate government policies and instruments. This being so, we are faced with the problem of integrating them within a unitary planning framework. If we are to recognize landscapes as possessing an exceptional value, exceptional policies and instruments should interact with those conventional instruments and policies utilized for the government of the territory. Also, in this case, instruments and policies for the conservation of exceptional landscapes should be integrated with those instruments and policies adopted for the planning and management of ordinary territories.
2. The World Heritage Conventions cultural landscapes correspond to sites that represent works of integration between nature and man. In particular, organically evolved landscapes, referred to in this paper, correspond to sites that are evidence of the evolution of society and of human settlements over the centuries, influenced and conditioned by the natural environment and by social, economic and cultural measures, both internal and external. The European Landscape Convention states that landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. 3. See Peter Fowler, World Heritage Cultural Landscapes 19922002. A Review, paper presented at the International Congress, World Heritage 2002, Shared Legacy, Common Responsibility, Ferrara (Italy), November 2002.
4. The problem of evaluation is present in both conventions. The evaluation categories of authenticity and integrity applied to sites used by the World Heritage Convention, and the category of peoples perception utilized by the European Landscape Convention, do not belong to the canons of rational science. What is more, no objective parameters exist for their measurement because they are dependent on context and meanings, necessitating a procedural and non-defining approach.
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being recognized as an organically evolved continuing landscape. After two years, in 1999, the area was declared a natural park by the Italian state. For the periods 2000/2002 and 2002/2004 it was included in the World Monuments Funds List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. Within the World Monuments Watch programme, a conservation project for the area was funded by American Express. The project was carried out integrally with the drawing up of a park plan. This park plan, although designed as an instrument of nature conservation as foreseen by the relevant Italian law, was writen in such a way as to be both a rural landscape conservation and management plan, as well as a plan for the development of multifunctional, tourist-integrated farming. The area, Cinque Terre on Italys north-west coast, is characterized by extensive terraces supported by interlacing drystone walls, predominantly used as vineyards and, to a lesser extent, olive groves. The principles, criteria and strategies adopted by the park plan have, however, a potentially wider application that goes beyond the specific case to which they were applied. They refer to all rural landscapes that have resulted from the profound changes made by the rural community in its attempt to modify the natural environment to suit production needs, and which guaranteed the communitys survival to take care of the territory. In particular, European agricultural landscapes satisfy these requisites and landscapes relating to the vine are emblematic. Such landscapes reflect a harmonious and long-lasting relationship between man, community and nature. They are evidence of a centuries-old tradition of sustainable rural life which can still play an important social and economic role in local communities. These landscapes are examples of a symbiotic and co-evolutionary relationship between natural and man-made processes, between farming and settlement structures, all of which are still to be investigated.5 Landscape is what we see. It is the fruit of our combined perceptions. In the visible world lies the invisible world of relations that individuals establish with communities and nature, adapting themselves to economic and political conditions. These relations are negotiated and filtered by cultural, symbolic and behavioural frameworks. The visible form of the landscape in this case signifies both witness and an inheritance left by the historical process of a rural communitys evolution and survival. Even though the image of a landscape arouses feelings similar to those experienced during artistic contemplation, its value is not that of a work of art. The latter is the result of an individuals intuition and its purpose is, if nothing else, to demonstrate that intuition. The landscape we admire is the result of a collective creativity which has known how to find opportunities for farming in a difficult natural environment. This extraction of opportunity, wherever it occurs, makes every farming activity particular. The landscape has the value of any object made with ability or knowledge which obtains the practical result of the survival of those who created it and those who inherit it. The knowledge that inhabitants had of their landscape was communal, immediate and intuitive. Rural landscapes are imprinted with knowledge of the laws of nature, the ability to construct according to the availability of materials and techniques, and the continuity of the historical process of rural economic development. Knowledge, competence and continuity have guaranteed an equilibrium between nature and processes of settlement development and a communitys social and cultural identity. Landscape images are codified by environmental and ecological values, by structures and crop types, by cultural anthropological values, by behaviour and settlement forms. Landscape forms have intrinsic values: the landscape is the tableau on which is written the epic narrative of civilization; in this sense the landscape can be considered as the code of the world. The landscape is implicitly imprinted with perception and evaluation possessed by all past generations, as well as the knowledge which has been used for the construction and maintenance of the landscape. Perception, evaluation and knowledge are also part of heritage and should be analysed and, when possible, preserved. These three elements in fact are relevant and refer to the categories of integrity and authenticity, categories that have to be respected if a cultural landscape is to be included in the World Heritage List. The visible world, the one we admire as landscape, is linked to the invisible world of the dynamics of nature, of history and of events, of the community and its lifestyle, of its manner of inhabiting, of its technical and construction skills which resulted in forms and images. To understand a phenomenon that inspires awe but whose raison dtre derives from practical needs which in the past found solutions generated by competences and spontaneous knowledge, today requires specific and complex scientific analyses.
A Conservation-useful Metaphor
General theoretical observations cannot be translated immediately into practices and action plans. Such observations need in some way to be brought nearer to the perceptions and actions not only of experts but also of communities and their inhabitants. For this reason,
5. A large part of European landscapes outside urban territories are rural. The majority of the twenty-one European sites listed by World Heritage as organic and evolving are rural. Among these, landscapes utilized as vineyards have been the subject of much interest in several informal meetings from which policy directions and documentation of considerable value have emerged. See Patrimoine et paysages culturels, Bordeaux, ditions Confluences; Renaissance des cits dEurope, Atti del Colloque, Saint-Emilion (2000); Riomaggiore Resolution, Conservazione integrata del territorio delle Cinque Terre: tutela del paesaggio, salvaguardia dai rishci ambientali ed idrogeologici (January 1999); Tokaji Declaration, Integrated conservation of vineyard cultural landscapes (July 2001).
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metaphors are required that, in order to explain the rural landscape, include the actions of inhabitants; paradigms too are needed that, so as to translate the metaphor in technical documents, allow for the construction of adequately and clearly formulated knowledge. Metaphors and paradigms are effective instruments to divert theory to specific forms of conservation. In present-day images, we can still make out a project which has given a unitary form to the work and tools, used to harness nature for the transformation into farmland and to the settlement and network of paths and other communication routes. It is this unitary form that allows for the establishment of communities. Underlying these images of the landscape lies a unique inner project which is collective through the contributions of many. The laws of nature, of water flows and soil stability, have been modified by man, who has given them a new equilibrium by integrating them with the rules of rural settlements shared and respected by the community as a whole. The individual could have done nothing alone. The community of individuals in realizing the project has created a work of collective art. The project, deposited in the landscapes images, has unified and ordered spatially all actions and measures carried out at different times and places. Actions and measures have been performed in respect of social norms that allow for harmony in the community and illustrate profound knowledge of the laws of nature. Human activities are expressed in the constructive and architectonic language of environmental competence, which derives from a mastery of common spatial schema and which, allied with language and habits, is part of the cultural identity of the community. The project is of an evolutionary nature as it has been realized over centuries by successive communities, which form the history of the territory. The project has materialized in time as a result of successive integrations and transformations. Each generation has given its own response to changes in needs, economic conditions, social aspirations, tools and instruments, and collective images by actions that have provided vitality to the projects development. As in a palimpsest, the history of men and women has been imprinted in the territory in which the long process of mutual identification between a communitys subject has been passed down. The actions performed in the past in carrying out the project were not foreseen as part of an initial single design and, what is more, they were not performed at the same time. These past actions have developed according to an incremental and sequential development of actions. The realization of one acted as a stimulus for the next. Works carried out are deposited and develop a reciprocal relationship with one another in time and space in a structured and complex manner which is not immediately evident. Relations were not activated at the same time but were established later, impossible as it was to decide a priori in which moment. The project has remained implicit, adapting itself to opportunities when they presented themselves, despite having an initial objective; it has become evident over time in the course of its development. Mans various measures enacted on the landscape have been stratified in the territory according to a project in continuity with what has been constructed before. These resulting structures are the inheritance of a working history that is made up by any physical object possessing form which has been placed in relation to the landscapes space. History becomes a system of individual stories that condition and limit, but also open up new prospects for the future. Human intervention in the landscape has not been formulated in the two dimensions of the cartography of a traditional plan. Environmental competence, which operates on the basis of competence acquired by experience, perceives a space which has many dimensions in which the significance and values attributed to visible forms by cultural and social systems are explained. These meanings and values project reality in spaces which, in addition to the three dimensions of traditional geometry, add other dimensions of perceptive filters with which reality is observed. Every cultural process, spontaneous or scientific, has its own system of judgement with which to direct observations and select elements that constitute the world. On the basis of this, it formulates representations that depend on both the observer and point of observation. It first chooses the objects and then isolates them, disconnecting them from the context to then recompose them in a space of relations which is also a space of meanings. In the differing spaces some elements, some forms, some objects, some figures remain obscured, while others are given prominence; they relate to each other according to hierarchies and potential for transformation. Inside the space or meanings and values, not only objective elements that make up the landscape co-exist, but also the observer, their vantage point and the cultural and mental models used as observation filters. In the case of Cinque Terre we assume that the territory is imprinted with the design of a project in progress; the landscape is pervaded by the image of a structure in which nature and continuity of history coexist with the looks of those who have worked and lived there; not only them, but also of those who today have the task of taking decisions and putting ideas into practice. If we are to consider the landscape as a collective project realized over a historically long period, it can only have been governed by some form of mechanism which may be compared in present terms with a form of unique management plan. This project has managed the integration of each individuals contribution into a single system, guaranteeing the overall stability of the landscape and its permanence during the modern age. The management model of ancient times did not view the hydro-geological characteristics of the landscape as separate from other territorial and landscape factors. Land
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management in the form of the construction of terraces performed a series of functions by providing a system of drainage, marking off property rights, establishing the organization of cultural practices, or representing formal and structural ties with the settlement systems. Spontaneous management utilized information stemming from a synthetic vision that overcame the complexity of a system in a state of constant transformation. The management plan established the unwritten conditions and rules that made hand-produced goods and farm production compatible with natural factors and their evolutionary laws. The plan made agreement possible between each community member, obliging each to respect certain conditions in order to guarantee their own survival and that of the community as a whole. taken and their management. This small/medium dimension is in fact the one in which individuals actions produce effects; it is the space in which inhabitants live and act, it has meaning resulting from the stories of each individual community member which interact in the community itself. This dimension is clearly not only a dimension measurable in metres but it is above all one of perception and action. Point five requires the integration and development of small and medium-sized spaces within a larger space which is able to frame them as a container of territorial identity. This corresponds to a mosaic which frames the tesserae of the medium-sized zoning. Space integration has a larger structure that has the sense of a collective narrative in which general identity rules acquire value. Point six highlights the intrinsic value of the local world. The plan has to draw attention in its formal structure to the resources and unique characteristics of individual places and, at the same time, counter any processes which tend to eliminate differences between realities with the aim of fitting them into the same model. The plan must also exploit environmental and contextual problems to its own advantage and favour interaction and social exchange as expressions of self-organization. Point seven focuses on flexibility that allows the plan to take into account situations and opportunities which were not foreseen at the outset. Interaction between individuals, community and institutions depends on many variables which cannot be managed contemporaneously or which may manifest themselves over different periods of time. The plan, therefore, must be equipped to accept any opportunities that help it to reach its objectives. Ideally, it should stimulate the creation of these opportunities. If the plan is life that continues, it must be able to evolve over time, adapting itself step by step as it progresses. Point eight evaluates the economy which also develops on the basis of the production of ideas and not exclusively of objects. Ideas are stimulated by experiences, learning processes, social systems, traditionally transmitted conventions, environmental resources and living conditions. All these elements are resources to be exploited during the processes of development, which can also be stimulated by images proposed by the plan and not only activated by measures linked to economic planning. Point nine considers the landscape as a collective heritage in need of constant maintenance. Landscape features characterize the individuality of each place and each context. These features cannot be transferred or removed or purchased elsewhere. They are kept together by the environmental structure (natural, anthropic, social) which lies
6. The seminar material appears in Mariolina Besio (ed.), Il vino del mare. Il piano del paesaggio tra i tempi della tradizione ed i tempi della conoscenza, Venice, Marsilio, 2002.
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hidden and which brings them into a single system. The structure depends on individuals activities and the collective and social functions they perform as a group. The plan cannot conserve landscape forms unless it takes into account social and human activities and functions. Point ten proposes a vision for a desirable future; a strategic scenario in order to orientate choices and management of the plan. The vision works as an anticipating mechanism as in a certain way it outlines the future, without predetermining it. The future is open to the unexpected but the vision limits its possible configurations to a defined number of alternatives. Within the strategic scenario, attention is focused on the plans objectives and structure (knowledge building, zoning criteria, regulatory and legislative principles) and on the way in which the plan is to be carried out. The vision of the landscape, a vision in which a large part of the community will identify itself, has been formulated with the help of metaphors and paradigms. These have been used to establish a relation between the perception of experts and that of inhabitants and community, in order to ease the transfer of the vision into the park plan. This consists of a conservation plan which centres on controlling land-use, and a management plan which assigns the responsibility for conservation to inhabitants also. A third objective was to stimulate the involvement of individuals and communities, by giving them responsibility in the management of the conservation project and assigning them maintenance responsibilities. The plan foresees operational instruments, procedures, agreements and projects in order to mobilize human and financial resources, the former through the active participation of the interested parties, the latter via subsidies. Conservation mechanisms do not consider Cinque Terre as a simple image, as an icon of a past world which cannot be reproduced. These mechanisms seek to discover in the deep underlying structure the complex, unitary and organic relations which in the past brought solidity, in an efficient and balanced way, to the relations existing between the social, man-made and natural environments. Knowledge Building 8 The knowledge oriented towards the plan is not neutral but structured around phenomena which are important in representing the vision of a desirable future and making explicit the values present in it. This has revealed not only phenomena but also processes at work for the evaluation of the conservation plans risks and opportunities. It has been used to construct the plans strategy and translate it into land-use policy and rules. The first objective was to reveal the hidden project and the evolving continuity in the relation between forms of nature and forms of settlement. Anthropic structures were found which answer to a collective project activated over centuries with the support of a series of measures realized by the community. The project guaranteed the continuity and permanence of the rural settlements (sustainable, to use todays terminology). Knowledge was developed by using an interdisciplinary approach which has created a synthesis of knowledge bases generated by various disciplines: territory, urban and landscape planning, environment, socio-economic. The synthesis allowed for the identification of environmental systems, basin ecosystems and rural settlement ecosystems. Environmental systems classify territory into natural, rural and urban ambits, characterized by a different relationship between natural and man-made environments. These ambits can be found throughout the parks territory and they illustrate the general rules that distinguish the landscape of Cinque Terre from that of neighbouring areas.
7. The Declaration of Intent (Objectives) is an integral part of the plans documentation; the objectives summarized here are explored in more detail bearing in mind trends in international research and national and regional legislation on the environment and landscape. 8. The analyses and findings produced for the drawing up of the park plan appear in the Foundation Document, which is an integral part of the plans documentation. A considerable amount of information has been implemented on GIS technology, providing support for the decisions and management of the park plan. The World Monuments Watch programme of the World Monuments Fund, funded by American Express for the period 2000/2002, can be found at www.polis.unige.it/sla/w1sla.htm
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They have given sense to the collective narration from which the identity of Cinque Terre emerges. The paradigm followed in the drawing up of the park plan is that of the rural settlement ecosystem. The complexity of the system lies in the fact that dynamic natural phenomena interact with changes in the human settlement, according to planned intentions. Unlike environmental systems, the ecosystem has an aim, an organization consistent with this aim, a centre and boundaries which mark the organization processes, the latter varying over time. Basin ecosystems correspond to hydrographic basins or easily identifiable orohydrographic features. They connect areas belonging to different environmental systems (natural, rural, urban ambits), according to ecological relations governed by the laws of the natural dynamics of land and water. Rural settlement ecosystems make up the smallest territorial units in which a unitary organization of a rural settlement has been found. They belong to basin ecosystems, representing the areas characterized by hand-handmade objects, articles and settlements. The elements that make up rural settlement ecosystems include settlements, artificial land and water structures, property distribution, pathways linking farm settlements, and crops; all revealing an evident plan. They tell the story of individuals and small groups which, within the collective narration, have developed their own particular stories. In rural settlement ecosystems we can find a symbiotic relation between places and communities; the relations between natural and anthropic factors carried out for farming are organic in nature. They are linked in a structure of complex relations, which means that the transformations undergone by one factor will affect all the others. Inside these relations it is possible to calculate the balance of land and water resources also on the basis of changes carried out by man. Heightened awareness of aspects of rural landscape was made possible by a grant given by the World Monuments Fund under its World Monuments Watch Programme, funded by American Express, for the periods 2000/2002 and 2002/2004. Zoning and Regulations9 The plans zoning is structured according to differing levels of effectiveness. In each level, zoning and regulations reflect the specific zoning and the environmental rules found in the hidden project. At the first level, the strategy plan represents the scenario hoped for in the future. It fixes the orientation of territorial policies, priority objectives, conservation priorities and guidelines for differentiated land-use. This plan refers to the structure of environmental systems. At the second level is the protection plan which corresponds to the conservation level governing the processes of transformation in progress by means of land-use controls. The regulatory structure is oriented towards protection from hydrogeological risks, landscape conservation, equilibrium of farming ecosystems, building and land transformation controls, and the selection of rural areas to be conserved or to be followed within the confines of a guided renaturalization process. Zoning is flanked by a mechanism of environmental equalization, which is applied to any building work decided on by individuals which involves intervention in land or crop areas. This refers to basin ecosystems. The third level views the park plan as also a plan of management and projects. It foresees that all building work must either respect the principles of environmental equalization or be carried out by means of specific projects of landscape-environment renewal and sustainable development. Its regulations and programmes concern rural settlement ecosystems and are directed at the conservation of the terraced landscape. These regulations and programmes guarantee a form of environmental compensation towards the enhanced property, effected by the intrinsic value of rural properties via measures of renewal and recovery. The projects will be carried out through a series of complex programmes promoted or agreed on by the park authority. In this way, the once-spontaneous care of the territory performed by pre-industrial communities will be introduced institutionally. A landscape in which man has constantly operated, transforming it in order to conserve it, requires operational, regulatory and management instruments to encourage and govern measures for the maintenance of the territory, rather than a series of passive limits.
The plan does not aim to re-introduce behaviour, lifestyle models and economic models which today are anachronistic. It has, however, planned the landscapes deep structure in an innovative way that is appropriate to present-day economic and socio-anthropological systems. The new rules designed for the conservation of the rural landscape are no longer spontaneously consented to by members of a closed community, but established institutionally for the benefit of a community open to contributions from outside. These rules attempt to guarantee the economic advantages deriving from rural economic renewal and the advantages of a rediscovered sense of identity. The challenge for the park plan is to conserve the rural landscape while at the same time taking into consideration new customs and meanings and guaranteeing adequate social values and community participation.
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Bibliography
ALEXANDER, Ch. A Pattern Language. New York, Oxford University Press, 1977. ARNHEIM, R. Art and Visual Perception. Berkley, University of California Press, 1954. ASSUNTO, R. Il paesaggio e lestetica. Naples, Giannini, 1975. BACHELARD, G. La poetique de lspace. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1967. BELL, S. Landscape: Pattern, Perception and Process. New York, Spon, 1999. BERQUE, A. Les raisons du paysage. Paris, Hazan, 1995. BESIO, M. (ed.). Il vino del mare. Il piano del paesaggio tra i tempi della tradizione e tempi della conoscenza. Venice, Marsilio, 2002. BIDEAU, P. Lavenir des paysages ruraux europens entre gestion des heritages et dynamique du changement. Lyon, Universit J. Moulin Presse, 1992. BLOCH, M. Les caractres originaux de lhistoire rurale franaise. Paris, Armand Colin, 1952. BRUNET, P. Atlas des paysages ruraux de France. Paris, De Monza, 1992. CAUQUELIN, A. Linvention du paysage. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 2000. CIEREC. Lire le paysage, lire les paysages: actes du colloque. Saint Etienne, France, Centre Interdisciplinaire dtudes et de Recherche sur lExpression Contemporaine, 1984. COSGROVE, D. Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. London, Croom Helm, 1984. DAVIDSON, J.; LLOYD, R. Conservation and Agriculture. Chichester, UK, J. Wiley & Sons, 1978. DEWEY, J. Art as Experience. New York, Balch, 1934. DUBINI, R. Geografie dello sguardo. Turin, Einaudi, 1994. ECO, U. La struttura assente. Milan, Bompiani, 1968. . Le forme del contenuto. Milan, Bompiani, 1972. GREEN, B. Countryside Conservation: Land Ecology, Planning and Management. London, Spon, 1996. HIRSCH, E.; OHANLON, M. The Anthropology of Landscape. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995. JOLLIVET, M. (ed.). Vers un rural postindustrial. Paris, lHarmattan, 1997. LEVI-STRAUSS, C. Tristes Tropiques. Paris, Plon, 1955. LOZATO-GIOTART, J. D. Gographie du tourisme: de lespace regard lespace consomm. Paris, Marson, 1985. MAFFESOLI, M. La contemplation du monde: figures du style communautaire. Paris, Grasset, 1993. MANNONI, T.; GIANICHEDDA, E. Archeologia della produzione. Turin, Einaudi, 1996. MARTINELLI, M.; NUTI, L. Fonti per lo studio del paesaggio agrario italiano, atti 3 convegno di storia urbanistica. Lucca, CISCU, 1981. (a cura) MERLAU-PONTY, M. Phnomnologie de la perception. Paris, Gallimard, 1945. MONDALA, L.; PANESE, F.; SODERSTROM, O. (eds.). De la beaut lordre du monde. Paysage et crise de la lisibilit. Lausanne, Universit de Lausanne Presse, 1992. PAREYSON, L. Estetica: teoria della formativit. Milan, Bompiani, 1991. PORTEAUS, J. D. Environmental Aesthetics: Ideas, Politics, and Planning. New York, Routledge, 1996. SERENI, E. Storia del paesaggio agrario italiano. Bari, Laterza, 1961. SINCLAIR, M. T.; STABLER, M. The Economics of Tourism. New York, Routledge, 1997. VENTURI FERRIOLO, M. Etiche del paesaggio: il progetto del mondo umano. Rome, Editori Riuniti, 2002. VON DROSTE, B., PLACHTER, H., RSSLER, M. (eds.) Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag, 1995.
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the meaning of the term is still being debated in many countries. In Germany, which has two cultural landscapes the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wrlitz and the Upper Middle Rhine Valley on the World Heritage List, the term is recognized even by experts as ambiguous and often vague. The local population does not necessarily feel as if it is living in a clearly defined area and there is often no awareness of the special meaning of an area. Thus the exact definition and description plays an important role. In co-operation with public authorities and committed people and local facilities, DBU has succeeded in revisualizing the landscape around the medieval Cistercian abbey of Heisterbach near Bonn. The management structure of the Cistercian monks is still recognized today for its specific character. On completion of a preliminary study, an exhibition was mounted in one of the monastery buildings. The authorities, non-governmental organizations and the local population were involved from the beginning. It is hoped that future political conditions will allow for the protection of this landscape which is specifically influenced by the culture of the medieval monks. A committee of representatives from the various administrative levels, involving both funding organizations and experts, has been established to formulate these basic conditions. The Heisterbach project can be regarded as an outstanding example of raising awareness of cultural landscapes. However, Heisterbach has shown, as have other projects, that communication with the public and the form of the project are of central importance. Constant efforts at communication must accompany any measures that are taken, suitable media being exhibitions, flyers, publications and local events. national organizations such as ICCROM would be desirable in this respect. First reflections and experiences from management courses have been obtained from the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation BerlinBrandenburg, which also has the responsibility of caring for the World Heritage Palaces of Potsdam and the educational facility at the Villa Salzburg in Dresden.
Contact with the Cultural Landscape Further Education and Management Young People and Cultural Landscapes
When dealing with their specific problems, historic cultural landscapes often require particular technologies appropriate to their development. Frequently it is a question of historic technologies and abilities that have been lost. Those who are responsible for valuable garden artworks, for example, complain about the lack of sensitivity and expertise of garden specialists. A proposition has been made to build an education facility to familiarize gardeners with historic garden technologies in this case at the Frst Pckler Muskau Park on the Neisse River, which today divides the park between Germany and Poland. A particular attraction of this idea is its international character. On the basis of an initial DBU project, using historic garden technologies discovered by intensive investigations in archives and libraries, such educational activities in Muskau can now go ahead. As well as technical and creative abilities, certain management qualities are also a prerequisite to the assessment and protection of cultural landscapes as a whole. A future objective of DBU projects could be to promote such management qualities or to help advance them. Workshops could be set up nationwide, even aiming to reach Central and Eastern European countries. Co-operation with interWith the purposeful support of young people it is possible to raise interest in cultural landscapes and in the methods and instruments of their protection. To this end, projects with technical and skilled instruction, in co-operation with schools, are required. Students and pupils can act as young journalists and report on the protection of cultural monuments and landscapes. One such school newspaper is currently running as a cross-border project. Young people can also become involved in longer-term local training aimed at caring for valuable cultural assets, concerning which discussions are under way between DBU, UNESCO and the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz. In order to promote environmental thought at universities generally, DBU has initiated a scholarship programme for highly qualified college graduates which has begun in Poland in co-operation with the Nowicki Foundation, to be followed by further programmes for the Baltic States. Scholarships for Kaliningrad and the Czech Republic are in preparation. Young researchers can apply to these programmes in order to deal with the protection of cultural landscapes, aimed at the establishment of an European network of expert graduates with similar objectives.
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DBU is able to help, even with its restrictions, to solve some of the problems of protecting cultural landscapes that concern Central and Eastern Europe particularly. Model projects can be supported in the sense of best practice. Aspects of the transfer of expertise, qualifications and education should play an important role. Other institutions such as NGOs can become partners. The commitment of the local population and facilities is vital. Co-operation with UNESCO and other international experts can be useful in order to integrate the activities into a bigger network. Safeguarding and protection of cultural landscapes as our heritage demands efforts even from private foundations. DBU will continue to participate in this procedure, as a foundation that wishes to advance environment and cultural assets as one of its fields of support.
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Oasis Effect
Desert environmental characteristics can be ascribed to the combined effect of extreme soil aridity and sparse vegetation. The soil, that is the surface layer produced by the continuous action of chemical, physical and above all biological factors, makes vegetative life possible, which, in turn, protects the soil ensuring its constant regeneration. Desert surfaces, which are bare of vegetation, experience the full violence of atmospheric agents that crush the rocks and produce sand along with erosion and poor drainage. Sand, in its turn, worsens the drought and contributes to the disappearance of runoff, bringing about the accumulation of sterile saline outcrops on the soil. Therefore, land degradation and biological impoverishment worsen within an ever-increasing aridity cycle. These general trends can be interrupted in given specific situations which create environmental niches and microenvironments running counter to the overall cycle. A shallow depression collects moisture, a rock casts a shadow, a seed thrives. In this way, positive feedback begins: the plant generates its own protection against the suns rays, concentrates water vapour, attracts insects which will produce biological material, and creates the soil which will then nourish it. Thus, a biological system is produced which uses other organisms making their own contribution. A symbiosis is set up; a microcosm is created as the result of co-existence. The peoples inhabiting the Sahara use these processes to create their oases. Often, the origin of an oasis was a simple palm tree planted in a shallow depression in the soil and surrounded by dead branches protecting it from the sand. Over time, vast cultivated stretches grew along terraced canyons or green archipelagos rose up from the sand dunes thanks to diversified and complex water-production techniques, land organization and the creation of a microclimate. Though on entirely different scales, the same principle of the oasis effect applies: a virtuous cycle is established which can run itself and regenerate itself. This is the process whereby islands of fertility are created in the desert which can be defined as follows: an oasis is a human settlement in a harsh geographical situation which uses rare resources available locally in order to set off a rising amplification of positive interactions and create a fertile, self-sustaining environmental niche in direct contrast to the unfavourable surroundings (Laureano, 1988). Therefore the vital niches, the oases, are not the upshot of natural conditions, but rather of human work and knowledge suited to the environment and handed down from generation to generation; they are cultural landscapes, the
result of genius and experience. The same date palm, the indispensable oasis plant, is not a spontaneous plant but the result of domestication and cultivation. In the desert every palm grove has been planted, accurately cultivated and irrigated. In the oases, water resources, too, depend on accurate catchment techniques and are jealously managed and distributed.
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Water Mines
Water resources are caught by an extraordinary technique that makes use of underground drainage tunnels, known locally as foggaras. This method dates back thousand of years and was used over a vast area ranging from China, through Persia and Spain to Latin America (Goblot, 1979). The foggara of the Sahara is similar, allowing for local differences, to the qanat or kariz of Persia, the falaj of Arabia, the khottara of Morocco and the madjira of Andalusia. Similar waterworks have been found in Peru and in Mexico in pre-Columbian farm units called hoyas (Soldi, 1982). It is difficult to establish exactly whether these systems come from knowledge dissemination or from reinventing processes in areas having the same physical characteristics. In fact, the construction of the most ancient towns was based on the building of these systems: the biblical town of Qana was probably named after the qanat that ensured its existence; Jericho and Jerusalem had the same kinds of water supply; in the oasis of Megiddo the tunnels for water harvesting date back to 1500 BC. The Arab geographer El Idrisi said that the town of Marrakesh developed
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Hydric Genealogy
Legal succession, marriage and sale of property are responsible for the ongoing system of breaking down and building up of an intricate series of systems of kesria, links and bridges. The bridges are necessary where one or more ditches cross over, to avoid having the waters mix. This whole system, therefore, reflects how property ownership evolved over time a framework of water that registers the passing generations, of family ties and family property in a system of kinship that is physically represented by the network of ditches (Marouf, 1980). Like a garden full of memories, an oasis reveals its own history throughout the flowing of its precious liquid. Water is the lifeblood that is distributed among the families. Therefore, the jewel, symbol of fertility that Berber women wear around their necks, is the stylization in different shapes of the water repartition system. The Egyptian hieroglyphic mes, to be born, has the same shape, which confirms the close links between the oasis culture and the most ancient civilizations of the desert. The
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References
EVENARI, M. 1971, 1982. The Negev: The Challenge of a Desert. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. GAUTHIER, E. F. 1928. Le Sahara. Paris, Payot. GOBLOT, H. 1979. Les qanats, une technique dacquisition de leau. Paris. LAUREANO, P. 1985. Wadi villages and sebkha villages in the Saharan ecosystem. Environmental Design (Rome), No. 2. . 1986. The oasis. The origin of the garden. Environmental Design (Rome), No.1. . 1993. Giardini di Pietra, i Sassi di Matera e la civilt mediterranea. Turin, Bollati Boringhieri. . 1994. Le complexe trogloditique des Sassi de Matera. In: J. Rewereski, Actes du Symposium International consacr au patrimoine souterrain creus. Saumur, France, CEPPSC/UNESCO. MAROUF, N. 1980. Lecture de lespace oasien. Paris, Sindbad. MAYERSON, Ph. 1959. Ancient agricultural remains in the central Negeb. BASOR, No. 153, February. SOLDI, A. M. 1982. La agricultura tradicional en Hoyas. Lima.
Bibliography
AA.VV. Techniques et pratiques hydro agricoles traditionnelles en domaine irrigu. Actes du Colloque de Damas 1987. Vols. 12. Paris, Librarie Orientaliste Paul Guethner, 1990. BARICH, B. Luomo e la ricerca dellacqua presso le societ Sahariane dellOlocene. In: La religione della sete. Luomo e lacqua nel Sahara. Milan, Centro di Studi di Archeologia Africana, OctoberNovember 1992. BARROIS, A. G. Les installations hydrauliques de Megiddo. Extract from Syria, No. 3, 1937. Paris, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Guethner. CANTELLI, C. Misconosciute funzioni dei muretti a secco. Umanesimo della pietra, No. 9, 1994. Martina Franca. CHAPTAL, L. La lutte contre la scheresse. La capatation de la vapeur d'eau atmosphrique. La Nature, 60e anne, 1932/2. CHELOD, J. LArabie du Sud, histoire et civilization. Vols. IIII. Paris, 1984.
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The International Centre for Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes (ICMCL) was established in 1999 by the Salerno Province, Italy, and the Cilento National Park. It is based at Castellabate. Recognizing that cultural landscapes are lived-in, living landscapes, based on the interaction between humanity and nature, working with others, ICMCL seeks to safeguard, conserve, sustain and manage this special interaction. The Mediterranean region is rich in cultural and biological diversity. People have lived here for millennia, interacting with nature, leaving their distinctive mark on the landscape through trade, cultivation and construction. The Mediterranean, more than any other region in the world, is the cradle and melting pot of civilization. It has a cultural heritage of outstanding global significance. Nowhere is this more true than in the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, where the interaction between man and nature has produced some of the worlds richest cultural heritage with a diverse and ancient lineage. Cultural landscapes are the product of this complex interaction. The landscape we see is the end product, representing the complexity and richness of the social, economic and cultural processes in which the heritage is rooted. Management of these areas cannot be divorced from the processes which developed them. The unrivalled diversity of the cultural heritage of the southern and eastern Mediterranean presents both a great challenge and a unique opportunity. But this rich heritage is at risk. High population growth, increasing infrastructure developments, intensive farming and desertification, rapidly growing numbers of tourists, are all combining to produce radical changes unparalleled in the history of Mediterranean landscapes. To safeguard these landscapes for the future we need to understand the processes by which they have been constructed and manage the inevitable future changes in a way that will safeguard and conserve our rich heritage. Managing cultural landscapes requires a special approach, special knowledge and skills. Cultural landscapes are not museum pieces, they are lived-in, living landscapes.
The Main Activities of the ICMCL are: to undertake research on the role and importance of cultural landscapes for the conservation of the tangible and intangible heritage, for the preservation of biological and cultural diversity, and for the benefit of the population by implementing sustainable development in the Mediterranean; to develop the skills and knowledge to increase professionalism and build local capacity in cultural landscape management, mainly in the southern and eastern Mediterranean regions; to raise global awareness of the historical and spiritual nature of cultural landscape heritage through outreach programmes, publication of papers and articles, and dissemination of general and technical information; to provide advice on particular landscape management issues; to support identification and evaluation of outstanding cultural landscapes; to support the designation of more cultural landscapes as international and national protected areas; to serve as a negotiating forum for creating new ideas and settling internal conflicts related to cultural landscapes; to form a legitimate collective actor at the regional level for planning, decision-making, implementation and controlling of development programmes and projects on cultural landscapes; to provide adequate training on management and other issues relating to cultural landscapes; to contribute to raising common accountability for environmental, economic and social development in cultural landscapes; to act as a documentation (library) centre on cultural landscapes.
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Latin America/Caribbean
Cultural Landscapes and the Challenges of Conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean
Elias J. Mujica
In Latin America and the Caribbean only two properties are inscribed as cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List: Viales Valley in Cuba (1999) and the Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the Southeast of Cuba (2000). Nevertheless, some World Heritage sites inscribed on the List prior to the development and approval of the cultural landscape concept, such as the mixed site of the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (Peru), comprise significant cultural landscapes, while others such as the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana (also Peru) may be considered as the most dramatic relict cultural landscape of all on the World Heritage List, according to Henry Cleere. During the past five years, two expert meetings on cultural landscapes have been organized in Latin America: the Regional Thematic Meeting on Cultural Landscapes in the Andes (Arequipa/Chivay, Peru, May 1998, and Cultural Landscapes in Central America (San Jos de Costa Rica, September 2000). The main purpose of both meetings was to identify potential cultural landscapes in the frame of the overall global strategy for a balanced and representative World Heritage List. In this presentation a number of case studies are described, some of them presented at the Andean meeting, to give an overview of the diversity of landscapes in western South America while highlighting the crucial conservation challenges that they face. Some theoretical and methodological issues are then discussed, together with issues that must be addressed in order to move forwards and further improve the implementation of the cultural landscape concept. example of a seventeenth-century cacao hacienda, Chuao, surrounded by Venezuelas first national park, the Henri Pittier. The centre of activity, the cacao production and process, is reproduced in the architectural plans of the hacienda with the drying and fermenting of the cacao in the central square. This site has seen the key episodes of Latin American history: the native indigenous presence before the sixteenth century, the Spanish colonial period and the later African cultural input through the haciendas and the slaves to work them, the racial mixture produced over the centuries, and finally the free citizens of the Republic of Venezuela. The hacienda today covers some 240 ha, with a population of some 2,000 inhabitants, the majority descendants of African slaves. The material cultural heritage preserved within the hacienda is comprised of petroglyphs, archaeological settlements and indigenous cemeteries of the precolonial epoch. Corresponding to colonial times are the church (declared a National Monument in 1960), the house of the Altos, the Cural house, the patio for drying cacao in front of the church as the central architectonic element of the town, the ruins of El Mamey, the oven, the Cross of the Pardon and the cacao warehouse. Notable symbols of contemporary culture are such intangible values as religious festivities and their associated traditional music, as well as such tangible values as musical instruments, the masks of the dancing devils, traditional tools for agriculture and fishing, and the traditional architecture of the dwellings. Concerning the natural heritage, the hacienda is surrounded by the Henri Pittier National Park, decreed in 1937 and outstanding for its conservation of the northernmost cloud forest in South America. Two elements thus come together: the presence of native rainforest characteristic of the northern extremities of Latin America, and the cultural practices of management of the cacao fields. The cacao crops have made it possible to conserve the tropical rainforest of the valley of Chuao by the necessary shade they offer, which would have been condemned to disappear under traditional agriculture or more recently through speculative land-use for real estate and tourist developments. In short, this case illustrates the close association of natural and cultural values with the intangible heritage of the rituals and music of the workers and local communities, descendants of African slaves. Today it is the place in South America where the purest music and dances of African origin have been conserved. It illustrates the interrelationship
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between cultural and natural values associated with a contemporary population that keeps alive intangible values in the rituals and music of its religious festivities. Chuao remains unique in its traditional practice of natural resources management, as well as the conservation of native resources of great value. The main challenge is how can this cultural landscape be conserved when the owners of the hacienda live in extreme poverty, with inadequate management of the fields and poor administration of the produce. Ciudad Perdida and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a massive isolated mountain that emerges abruptly near the Atlantic coast of Colombia. Is, without doubt, the highest of its type in the world, and in only 42 km it reaches heights of 5,775 m above sea level. The abundance of water and the range of thermal variations provide habitats for a great wealth of flora and fauna, and the site has been determined as one of the most important biodiversity conservation centres in the northern Andes. On the arrival of the Spanish in the seventeenth century, the Tairona inhabited Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, densely populating the warm and temperate ecological niches. On the northern slopes more than 200 archaeological sites corresponding to this culture have been identified, Ciudad Perdida being the most important. The Tairona constructed their towns on the slopes of the mountain, adapting them through stepped terraces supported by stone containing walls. In addition they developed various architectural elements to control the water and the erosion of the soil, in an environment where the rains are torrential and the slopes pronounced. Ciudad Perdida consists of 169 terraces, roads, stairs, spillways and sewerage systems intercalated with green open spaces. The terraces are arranged following the axis of the blade of the hill, forming what is known as the central axis or religious and political centre. From the central axis other household constructions, of lesser quality in terms of size, access routes and stone work, are dispersed on the slopes. The indigenous groups that today inhabit the mountains are the Kogi (Kggaba), Arsarios (Wiwas), Arhuacos (Wintukwas) and Kankwamos (Atanqueros), belonging to the macro-Chibcha linguistic group, a total population of approximately 25,000. They survive by conserving some guidelines of environmental management despite having been forced by colonization into ecological niches over 1,000 m above sea level. The current indigenous populations still have towns of a ceremonial and social character. Each family can own miscellaneous dwellings distributed at different levels, as a way of taking advantage of the great diversity of products of their environment. Such is the importance of Ciudad Perdida for the indigenous population that some of the elderly Kogi claim that the site is protected because Teyuna, their mythical and civilizing hero, passed by there. The people believe that it was at the River Buritaca watershed that Teyuna carried out his activities as creator of the figures of stone and gold, which are buried in several places in order to protect and sustain the ancestors of all beings. To sum up, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia is an exceptional example of a cultural landscape and sacred place of the Kogi Indians, who are now living around the pre-Columbian structures of the Ciudad Perdida, a most complex and impressive archaeological site. Of outstanding significance is the peoples interaction with nature, illustrated by their management of water and knowledge of medicinal plants. In order to facilitate its protection and management, the Colombian Government established the Sierra Nevada Natural Park in 1964, with the objective of conserving for perpetuity this strategic ecosystem and the native communities that are settled in the region. In addition, and for the purpose of helping to preserve the biodiversity of this area, in 1981 UNESCO nominated Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, including the Tayrona National Natural Park, to the category of Biosphere Reserve. The main challenges to the conservation of this magnificent cultural landscape are related to the dual authorities national and indigenous leadership; two political provinces sharing one property; the negative impact of scientific tourism; and the political and social violence in the surrounding region. Colca Valley, Southern Peru The Colca Valley, in southern Peru, contains most impressive examples of organically evolved cultural landscapes based on economic and social imperatives, both relict and continuing landscapes as well as associative ones. The valley is located in the north of the departamento of Arequipa, 165 km from Arequipa city. Up to a certain point, it is a typical inter-Andean valley, that is, a water flow that runs 200 km from east to west, from the snowcapped summits of the Andes towards the Pacific coast. But, in terms of geomorphologic formation and natural landscape, Colcas narrow canyon, 3,400 m deep,. is unique in the world. Furthermore, snow-capped volcanic peaks grace its margins, including the Ampato (6,288 m above sea level) in the south and the Misti (5,597 m above sea level) in the north, from whence it has been determined that the furthest source of the Amazon River can be found. Although the Colca Valley is located around 3,000 m above sea level , it has a pronounced slope, allowing considerable biodiversity through differences in altitude and climate, with a wide range of native flora and fauna, some of them in danger of extinction. There are 300 plant species, notable among which are the remains of queoa
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forests and lonely puyas in the most isolated spots. Fauna include the condor, the parihuana or Andean flamingo, the giant hummingbird, the llama, alpaca, and their wild predecessors (guanaco and vicua), the white-tailed deer, the Andean cat or osjollo, the puma and the vizcacha. This magnificent natural landscape has been used and transformed by indigenous societies since at least 10,000 BC, when the first inhabitants settled in geographic and climatic conditions very similar to those that exist today. Twelve centuries later, there are seventeen traditional villages in the valley, all with colonial churches of excellent workmanship, such as those of Sibayo, Yanque, Cabanaconde and Coporaque, the material reflection of the economic importance that this valley has had throughout history. In addition to the importance of the higher areas for grazing the native camelids, the valley was one of the largest centres of agricultural production in pre-Hispanic times, judging by the quantity and quality of the agricultural terraces that unquestionably form one of the essential cultural elements of the valley. Most of the the valley is lined with agricultural terraces, of different forms and sizes in accordance with the topography, access to water and the type of crop for which they were intended. Where the slopes allow, the terraces create the appropriate conditions for agricultural production, with two basic crops: the potato on the highest and coldest land, with less access to water; and corn and other Andean grains on land with more benevolent climatic conditions. Today the Colca Valley, cultural landscape par excellence, is strongly pressured by tourism, and by the modernism of local authorities which, in the name of progress, are substantially changing the morphology of the colonial settlements. Even so, the pre-Hispanic agricultural terraces are still in production, although some are suffering from erosion since losing the social web that kept them together, and the valley continues to be one of the largest banks of germplasm of Andean agricultural products. The main challenges are related to the management of such a complex and extended system, and that the landscape has changed considerably over time so that authentic objects in the landscape have been used differently by different communities (reuse of Inca walls for housing purposes, etc.). Furthermore, a number of issues concerning the integrity of complex agricultural landscapes (watershed, irrigation systems, communities, scale, etc.) with a specific focus on functional integrity (vertical and horizontal), are key aspects of the Colca case. The sustainability of the cultural landscape and issues relating to the local population, their associations with the landscape and its tangible and intangible heritage, and the interaction between different communities, must also be considered. Atiquipa: Lomas on the Southern Coast of Peru The site of the lomas of Atiquipa, on the southern coast of Peru some 600 km south of the city of Lima, is located in a coastal desert by the Pacific Ocean. Lomas, a mix of grass and other herbaceous species, is a particular ecological phenomenon of the Peruvian coast, where the desert generates vegetation thanks to the condensation of coastal fog. With an area estimated at 22,800 ha, this is the greatest expanse of lomas to be found along the coast of Peru. Also within this area is conserved an large expanse of forest of some 2,190 ha, while in another relatively small area of 350 ha contemporary communities have developed fruit trees, alfalfa, corn, vegetables and livestock, mainly goats. In contrast, a preliminary archaeological study carried out in the area has documented the existence of old and complex systems of farming that occupied at least 2,600 ha. What is innovative and surprising here is that a lomas environment was ingeniously combined, on a large scale, with the terracing of the lower slopes and the development of artificial irrigation, through the specialized management of the lomas and its capacity to generate water in a location where this resource is extremely limited. At the same time, the presence of a high concentration of pre-Hispanic settlements reveal both a high population density and a complex articulation of the territory. At present, the form of exploitation of the lomas of Atiquipa is leading irremediably to desertification. Recovering the technological legacy of the former populations of the area would allow us to reformulate our relation to the particular characteristics of the territory, stop degradation of natural resources, and re-establish sustainable management strategies in the lomas and the region, appropriately resolving the challenges of contemporary development. The case of the lomas of Atiquipa is an excellent example of a cultural landscape of the Andean Pacific coast, as well as how lessons can be learned and applied to contemporary sustainable development. Sajama National Park, Bolivian Altiplano Mount Sajama is a snow-capped peak with an altitude of 6,542 m above sea level, around which was developed a national park of the same name. This was the first protected area in Bolivia, declared as a natural reserve in 1939 due to the forests of kheua (Polylepis tarapacana) on the mountain slopes the highest forests in the world. The climate in the region is cold to freezing. The annual mean temperature is 10 C, the minimum in winter reaches 30 C and the maximum during the day 22 C. During the summer there are frequent rains, although the ground is normally frozen throughout the year. It is an arid region with minimum levels of precipitation of 90 mm per annum.
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Located in the departamento of Oruro on the border with Chile, the Sajama National Park is contiguous with the Lauca National Park of Chile. With a protected area of 103,233 ha, the park incorporates geological natural wonders, unique flora and fauna and thermal waters, as well as highly valuable cultural elements such as polychrome chullpas (pre-Hispanic funerary towers), rock art, pukaras or fortified places, and colonial architecture and art. In terms of pre-Hispanic cultural heritage, it comprises the painted chullpas of the Ro Lauca, decorated with different designs in white, red, green and black. These are currently the only painted chullpas that exist in Bolivia or Peru. The designs have been widely analysed and related to preColumbian textiles. In terms of the colonial cultural heritage, the chapels and churches are outstanding considering the region where they were constructed. They were established by Augustinian priests in the sixteenth century. The church of Curahuara de Carangas, the most important of the region, has painted murals dating from 1608. Other notable churches are those of Andamarca (1727), Sabaya (1880), and Sajama, Tomarapi and Lakes dating from the nineteenth century, also with high-quality murals. Architecturally, most of these churches have a single aisle with atrium and tower. The Spaniards built over the indigenous Aymara sanctuaries in order to demonstrate their domination, as in the case of the Sanctuary of the Nativity of Sajama. Today there are 7,891 families living in Sajama, Aymara of Caranga origin, grouped into ayllus. This area is one of those which has managed to conserve its traditional social organization, customs and indigenous religious beliefs. Traditional Aymara circular dwellings can still be found. The main occupation of the population is raising camelids. Agriculture is carried out on a very small scale because of the extreme climate, the frosts and the high aridity. The crops are reduced to the quinoa and the luk potato, a grain and a native tuber of the Andes, which are all that can be grown at these altitudes. The natural and cultural values of the park make this area of major importance for conservation in Bolivia. The forests of Polylepis that still exist in the area are the most important, because in other areas of the country they have practically disappeared. In these forests live species that are not found in other areas because their survival depends on the presence of the kheua, such as hummingbirds (Sappho sparganura and Patagona gigas) and a very small mammal (Thilamys pallidior). To sum up, Sajama is an exceptional cultural landscape, for the quality of its natural and cultural components, by virtue of being the first protected area in Bolivia, and including the highest forest in the world. Quebrada de Humahuaca, North-west Argentina The Quebrada de Humahuaca, recently nominated for the World Heritage List, is located on the eastern slopes of the Andes in north-west Argentina, near the borders with Bolivia and Chile. Although the environmental characteristics are restrictive in terms of climate, water and soils, the Quebrada of Humahuaca witnessed a lengthy and complex indigenous historical process that began several thousand years ago and culminated in the European conquest, shortly after the area was surrendered by the Inca Empire at the end of the fifteenth century. For over 5,000 years, the Quebrada de Humahuaca has been a natural route linking the cold high plateau of the Andes with the warm low plain of the Chaco, a function that persisted during colonial and republican times. Throughout this long history, pre-Hispanic and colonial monuments have been constructed along the Quebrada. From the colonial period, the traditional towns of Tilcara, Humahuaca, Uquia and Purmamarca are noteworthy, especially for the paintings in their churches. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that this successful historical process was based not only on the economic activities triggered by the services needed on the route, but also on an agricultural production system appropriate to this semi-arid ecosystem. Indeed, in the Quebrada de Humahuaca 8,294 ha of pre-Hispanic agricultural areas have been recorded on the high slopes, 2,771 ha in the lower part of the valley and 590 ha in the flowing gorges. These include a traditional pre-Hispanic agricultural system that perfectly fits the relict cultural landscape definition. Coctaca is a superb example. Encompassing 3,900 ha of a type of platform for crop-growing although a better definition might be agricultural rooms it was constructed taking advantage of the ravines of the sinuous slopes. The stones that originally covered the slopes were used to build these rooms. While the fields were cleared, the stones were used to construct parallel walls over 150 cm high that on the one hand protect the fields from the cold winds, and on the other store the heat of the day in order to disseminate it at night when the temperature is low. It seems that the soil was specially brought from the fertile lower part of the Quebrada, and that these room-like fields are irrigated via artificial spillways of stone with the runoff from the upper slopes. Today the population of the Quebrada de Humahuaca has serious economic problems and the basin of the Ro Grande contributes a vast amount of sediment to the Ro de la Plata, from several hundreds of kilometres distance to the port of Buenos Aires, the capital city. Knowledge of natural resource management has been lost, as well as the social organization that made it possible, but the site remains an example of relict cultural landscapes in this part of America.
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The Inca Road System The Andes Mountains cover 70 of latitude along the western margin of South America. They comprise a section of the 15,000 km of the New World cordilleras and are 7,250 km in length. They occupy a continuous area of more than 2 million sq. km, extending from the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Colombia at about 11 N. to Tierra del Fuego at about 55 S. Given their enormous northsouth length, extending through all climatic and vegetation zones between the Equator and the Antarctic, the great individual summit heights and the unbroken highcrest altitudes that produce some of the most dramatic rain-shadow effects on earth, it is hardly surprising that the Andes contain the most extreme range of landscape types, climates and vegetation communities. The Andes are one of the regions of greatest environmental and geomorphological diversity in the world. The Central Andes were a cradle of civilization, one of the few places where civilization emerged. The Inca Empire is the last and best known of the advanced Andean societies and the biggest native state to arise in the Western Hemisphere. It covered an extensive territory, exploiting a great topographical and climatic complexity covering the present-day republics of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and part of Argentina. The success of this empire, as well as that of preceding societies, was due primarily to the knowledgeable management of natural resources and the deliberate transformation of landscape, turning barren land into extensive productive areas. For this reason, the best examples of cultural landscapes in the Andes refer to relict and continuous types. But, on the other hand, the success of the empire was also due to the Inca social and political system and the way they articulated such diverse territory through a 25,000 km network over some of the earths most rugged terrain, thus forming the nervous system of the empire: the Inca road system.4 The system was composed of two major routes: the Qapaq an, the main highland road that extended along the spine of the Andes between Cuzco and Quito and south into Chile and Argentina; and a parallel road that ran along the coast. Dozens of lateral roads connected these two routes. The sophistication of this communication network was rivalled in the ancient word only by that of Rome. These roads did more than facilitate travel. They moved goods, people and information and served as physical and conceptual links between the hinterland and Cuzco. Sometimes they appear almost over-engineered even in remote regions Inca engineers paved and embellished some stretches with stairs, drains and culverts and in this sense the road system was probably as much symbolic as it was practical.5 The Inca road network is pre-Hispanic Americas largest continuous archaeological remains, and one of its most outstanding cultural landscapes. Moreover, five South American countries share this common legacy, giving it a special regional value as well as common challenges.
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ing (dynamic/living) one, and vice versa. This transformation could be due to: (a) the characteristics of production systems using long fallow periods when the land recovers its productive capability in a natural manner; or (b) the importance of the recovery of traditional soil and water technologies (in a relict cultural landscape such as the archaeological agricultural terraces), giving them an active role in todays communities in association with traditional ways of life. Good examples are the agricultural terraces of the Colca Valley, that may be in use for some years then abandoned for a five- to seven-year period. The opposite process can also take place, with continuing landscapes becoming relicts through progressive abandonment, such as the lomas of Atiquipa on the southern coast of Peru. Discontinuity of Cultural Landscapes One of the main characteristics inherent to cultural landscapes is their considerable extent, which makes their management and conservation difficult, as we have seen in the examples given above. Moreover, in the Andes a typical characteristic of cultural landscapes is its discontinuity, encompassing several niches or ecological zones. Such a feature, very Andean, will surely differ from most cases of cultural landscapes in other regions, and as a result will require innovative proposals for the identification, definition, conservation and management of the sites. Sustainability of Cultural Landscapes A landscape in general is not static but dynamic, more so in mountain ecosystems. It implies an ingredient of permanent change; change that most of the time cannot be regulated or governed. In this context of dramatic change the risk of unsustainability is high. A methodology should be developed for identifying landscapes with the potential for being sustained. Is that possible? Cultural Landscapes and Conservation of Agro-biodiversity: Wild and Domestic Biodiversity in Latin America is clearly being eroded. Cultural landscapes can be used to alleviate this process, through mechanisms that should be studied and proposed. The UNESCO project Sacred Sites Cultural Integrity and Biological Diversity, for example, could be an important methodology with a culture-based approach for enhancing environmental conservation. We need to work more closely with these initiatives. Cultural Landscapes, Traditional Technologies and Productivity As mentioned earlier, in the case of mountainous countries like the Andean ones of Latin America, cultural landscapes have values beyond the aesthetic they have the potential to relieve poverty. Promoting the recovery of organically evolved cultural landscapes, through fresh emphasis on the Operational Guidelines and the investment policy of On the other hand, in most Latin American countries the interrelationship between man and nature has remained imprinted in physical evidence, either as relict landscapes of the historical process or as continuing landscapes with an active role in current society. Moreover, many of the cultural landscapes of the region, such as those demonstrating soil and water management and whose recovery would help to solve the problem of limited productivity, represent not only the achievements of the past but also real possibilities for the sustainable development of the indigenous communities of today. In this context, in Latin America the main challenges to the conservation of cultural landscapes are also related to coherent national policies and appropriate political decisions at the national and local levels, not only for the preservation of our heritage, but fundamentally for the development of our most valuable legacy: indigenous communities. I agree completely with Peter Fowlers proposal, that thematic meetings as the one organized on traditional land and water management are very important for a better understanding of cultural landscapes. But I also think that it is time to begin knocking more aggressively on the doors of politicians, not only in a case-by-case basis, but also at a higher level. We should perhaps organize special events for political awareness, or use the already existing platforms where politicians resolve or try to resolve regional issues. In any case, this is one of our goals for the coming years in Latin America. the World Heritage Fund, for example, will not only contribute to conservation, but in addition will promote the economic development of local communities based on the greater productivity that appropriate use can generate.
A Final Consideration
In most of Latin America, organically evolved cultural landscapes are closely linked to the oldest period of its history. They constitute part of the tangible evidence of a historical process unregistered by written sources, a process abruptly interrupted in the sixteenth century by the social and economic segregation of the indigenous populations, the heirs of that heritage. Organically evolved cultural landscapes, as defined in the Operational Guidelines, are the result of centuries of experience in the relation between culture and nature, an aggregation of unique knowledge as well as an important element in the generation of community identity In addition, the category of associative cultural landscape, such as the sacred sites, is of crucial importance in the generation and conservation of identity, mainly of ethnic minorities. These sites generate the concept of ownership, of profound roots, of self-esteem. These facts lend a special dimension to the cultural landscapes of Latin America, additional reasons for their identification, conservation and management.
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The Dancing devils of Chuao, Venezuela, one of today's most pure African origin tradition in South America. Photo: Instituto de Patrimonio Cultural.
The lomas of Atiquipa, in the southern coast of Peru, a fossil evidence of the Prehispanic human transformation of the dessert in a productive niche.
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Mireya Muoz
The Anta plain in the South American Andes, one of the centers of tubers diversity of the world.
Elias J. Mujica
Painted chullpas (funeral towers) of the Ro Lauca, Sajama National Park in Bolivia, decorated with different designs in white, red, green and black. These are currently the only painted chullpas that exist in Bolivia and Peru.
Elias J. Mujica
8 The Colca Valley (Arequipa, Peru), one of the most impressive examples of cultural landscapes organically developed based on economic and social imperatives in the Andean Countries. Ciudad Perdida in the Sierrra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia), consists of one hundred sixty-nine terraces, roads, stairs, spillways and sewerages systems intercalated with green open areas.
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Elias J. Mujica
The agricultural terraces (andenes) of Wiay Wayna, in the Machu Picchu Santuary and National Park, evidence of the Inka transformation of deep slopes into productive zones.
Elias J. Mujica
Latin America/Caribbean
In Mexico many errors have been made in the maintenance, management, use and other functions of historic landscapes and gardens; in general these errors are caused by the lack of specific knowledge of tutelary problems and conservation measures. Typically, cultural landscapes and historic gardens do not have maintenance and management organization. Most of the time, there is a gardener with little experience in charge of these gardens who maintains or replaces the historic vegetation at will. If there is a minimum culture of maintenance in the buildings; in the gardens there is none. The rehabilitation of a historic garden through private initiative and some public institutions has been reduced to simple economic exploitation. The most common cases of destruction, fortunately less frequent nowadays, are those in which the lots have been divided and construction has taken place on part or all of the land, for example the destruction of adjoining agricultural lands or of less architectonic sites in order to build housing, administrative or commercial centres, golf courses, sport clubs and other facilities. The zone most affected in Mexico City since 1950 is that of the floating gardens (chinampas) of Xochimilco, subsumed by urban growth. Today, Mexico City has not a good word to say of the town planning programmes that have made concessions to speculators and largely destroyed the system of cultural landscapes of each historic centre, now immersed in an urban ocean. Unfortunately, in all too frequent cases, the destruction consists of using buildings as simple containers rather than for their original function, or for some service required by the modern city (residences, congress centres, libraries, offices, schools, commercial centres, etc.) which modifies the organization of open spaces and the architectonic character (systematic replacement of closings, planishings, pavements, soffits, stairways, public services). These actions are accompanied by mutilations of garden architecture and modifications to the original design of plantations, motivated by economic reasons of cheaper maintenance or the mistaken idea that there is a functional value to all that is new and complete. It is quite common to see the radical diminution of densely wooded spots and forests, or the replacement of trees with unsuitable species, strangers to the history and character of the site. The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) administers 110 historic buildings; all of them with gardens, orchards or courtyards, which have to make do with minimal administration. They
entrust an organization or a private company to carry out the maintenance of gardens or entire complexes without checking the compatibility of the services offered or the capacity to respect and maintain the historic value of the sites. In Mexico, this behaviour mainly arises from the difficulty of considering cultural heritage as an economic resource without destroying its historic value it means considering its quality as a cultural heritage. An appropriate mindset is lacking to impose the legitimization of the economic as well as the social benefits of cultural heritage (bearing in mind that INAH has the responsibility for 33,000 archaeological zones in the country, these problems not only occur in landscapes and gardens, but also in museums, architectonic complexes, ecological parks, etc.).
1. I am grateful to Lionella Scazzosi for giving me literature and advice on this subject.
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The same thing can happen in the case of urban furniture with the replacement of benches, marking the original boundaries with mesh net, renewing parterre garnitures in natural stone and stairways in quarry stone with prefabricated cement or incongruous design elements. This took place in many wooded walkways in the late nineteenth century or the first decades of the twentieth century. The introduction of poorly located sculptures, of inferior artistic quality, may destroy the architecture instead of enhancing it. architectonic and historic character of each site: benches, low walls, waste baskets, lighting, games for children, stationary structures for outside entertainment, physical delimitations, planted areas, paving material in asphalt, gravel or concrete, services for the disabled, architectonic barriers, etc. The damage suffered by historic sites after opening to the public is often provoked by lack of planning for visitor capacity. A series of compatibility and use evaluations will help to show whether the site can support a variety of activities and for how many people. Many informal parks with vast lawns cannot tolerate excessive crowds, while formal gardens are sometimes more able to do so because their layout is organized for a variety of activities. When the characteristics of a historic site change, there are corresponding changes in its management and maintenance, especially where economic factors are paramount. These changes involve modifications in the architecture of the site, for example when ground-covering plants are introduced to stop the grass growing and reduce maintenance, or when the plantations are radically simplified by eliminating species or not renewing them, until only a few thin trees will grow and the ground cover is reduced to a dusty and compacted soil. When security and maintenance are insufficient, and the public fail to respect the collective property and cultural heritage, the destruction may result from acts of vandalism and theft, even of ornamental parts of buildings, fountains and infrastructure one of the most serious problems in the conservation of agricultural land and historic plants. Harm can also be done by the lack of judgement on the part of those who work in historic places. They usually supply colourful flowers, bushes and decorative plants to please the public.
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plantations to be eliminated from streets and hedgerows, because according to the authorities they are boring. They do not appreciate that trees in the street are health-giving and full of life. One of the saddest cases is in the Paseo de la Reforma neighbourhood of Mexico city, where the plantations have been taken away. The inexpert people responsible for this project substituted young individual trees for the original plantation and thus a major part of the areas cultural value has been lost. In some other restored sites unsuitable flowers are being planted and a great variety of plants used, flower borders are being built with modern plantation techniques that do not fit the historic character of the site. The same thing happens with herby rugs which are continually renewed to maintain a formal design and coloured patterns that have no history. The consequences of excessive innovation in maintenance work diminish documental possibilities and leave little opportunity for future investigators to discover more about the area. The short- and long-term consequences of decisions on practical projects are never programmed and evaluated; these are deplorable errors to which both users and designers are unconsciously prone. In Mexico there is no general appreciation of the extreme artificiality that can occur within cultural landscapes. The professional training of experts in Mexico and other Latin-American countries is deficient. There are not enough universities offering courses on the conservation and design of landscapes and gardens. For this reason, it is extremely important to draw attention to postgraduate courses in planning, design and conservation of landscapes and gardens, such as the course which started last September at the Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana campus in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. Specific professional training is needed to work with plant material, for which reason the first task of the project management is to plan for the inevitable transformations that will take place in the future of the site: the control del futuro. Nevertheless, management of territory and cultural heritage in Mexico is still mainly based on extraordinary and radical interventions, as if there was no alternative, instead of focusing on programming over time; and gardens are no exception. Other errors arise from the partial nature of studies and decisions concerning a site: sometimes problems are dealt with separately for plantations and architectonic components (only the vegetation, only the buildings or some of them, only the irrigation system, only roads and paths, surfaces, etc.), thus losing the integral relation to function, not to mention the historic and architectonic character within the site and with the surrounding territory. On other occasions, a restoration project only considers some areas and not the whole site, following the divisions of the property, its use and management or the budgetary requirements, thus losing any sense of interrelationship.
Conclusions
There are many examples of the owners of historic sites promoting important works of conservation and restoration, and it is true that sometimes these actions are not to the advantage of the site. The most common errors are made in projects related to future use. In cultural landscapes only works of exceptional character are foreseen and an attempt is made to remove causes of damage, deal with disease, and renovate materials. In many cases the landscape is turned over to new or different uses, as if it was a building where a series of maintenance activities could be programmed over several decades. Sometimes projects are launched with more ambitious architectonic goals or with the desire to recreate the past. Extensive restoration, at great expense, means vast material and formal transformations: reconstruction of components missing or never having existed, not always in style; addition of lakes, fountains and water features; new pavements; formation of parterres, hedges and topiary; new plantations, etc. Reconstructions that attempt to restitute the original design, apart from being misguided and destructive, help to create new difficulties in management because of the high costs of constant maintenance.
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Cultural Landscape Management Challenges and Promising New Directions in the United States and Canada
Susan Buggey and Nora Mitchell 1
As in many other parts of the world, recognition of the heritage value of cultural landscapes has grown remarkably in the United States and Canada in the past decade. The North American essays in Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value Components of a Global Strategy (von Droste et al., 1995, Chaps. 2022) situate the field ten years ago, then emerging as a largely new approach with high potential for conservation. The past decade has seen a significant move from a focus primarily on designed landscapes to a more encompassing attention to lived-in landscapes, described by the World Heritage Committee as organically evolved continuing landscapes or associative cultural landscapes. Similarly, a shift is observable from principally historic values to the inclusion of socio-economic issues, cultural traditions, and elements of the natural environment as core determinants of important values and as management objectives for cultural landscapes. That cultural landscapes centre on human interrelationships with the natural environment has become much more widely understood. Another outcome has been a significant contribution to the concept of cultural landscapes from many different fields and perspectives with an interest in human relationships with land, including historic preservation, environmental history, cultural geography, conservation biology and social science (Alanen and Melnick, 2000; Groth and Bressi, 1997; Russell, 1997). The contributions from these disciplines, the growth of interdisciplinary work, and the management experience of the last ten years have extended the range of the cultural landscape concept into new areas and created an opportunity for the development of promising new directions in conservation. Cultural landscape conservation in the United States and Canada covers the entire spectrum of the World Heritage Convention typology. Canada broadly adopted the WHC framework for cultural landscapes, and guidelines for identification and evaluation for different types of landscape have been developed. Examples in each category from parks and gardens to rural historic landscapes to aboriginal cultural landscapes have been designated as nationally significant in both countries. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of provinces and states that have recognized and responded to the relevance of cultural landscapes in their territories, and nongovernmental organizations have participated much more actively in developing landscape programmes than in the past. Even so, no comprehensive inventories or theme studies of cultural landscapes have yet been completed as a comparative basis for placing cultural landscapes on the national tentative lists for World Heritage designation in either the United States or Canada. This paper focuses primarily on continuing and associative cultural landscapes and addresses some management challenges that they present. These types of landscape are often large in scale, include complex cultural and natural resources, and involve multiple ownerships and traditional management systems. As such, they require conservation strategies that are locally based and work across boundaries, respect cultural and religious traditions and historic roots, as well as ecological systems, and focus on sustainable economies. Those living in the landscapes from indigenous peoples to urbanites have taken a new role in their management (Mitchell et al., 2002). They have tied the landscape more closely to the social and economic life of communities and have focused attention on its living qualities from traditions and rituals of daily life to what places mean to people who live in them, rather than meanings structured primarily by the perceptions of external experts and professionals. In Canada, the Conseil du Paysage Qubcois has provided leadership in developing the Charte de Paysage Qubcois, inspired by European experience and the European Landscape Convention. The principles and practices it sets forth for recognizing and managing everyday working landscapes as well as exceptional landscapes, both urban and rural, provide guidance for communities in dealing with landscape management (Conseil du Paysage Qubcois, 2000). In the United States, conservation of large-scale lived-in landscapes is best exemplified in National Heritage Areas. Over the last decade there has been a growing momentum from communities and regions across the country seeking national recognition as a heritage area or corridor. To date, the US Congress has established twenty-three National Heritage Areas (Fig. 1), and many more continue to be proposed each year. These areas possess a distinctive regional character where local traditions have shaped the landscape and sustained the culture and way of life. Even with national designation, the areas remain in existing, largely private, ownership. The legislation establishing an area creates a collaborative management entity that generally includes government representatives at local, state and federal levels; representatives from non-profit organizations; and representatives from residents, businesses and other stakeholders. This group works together to identify and conserve important resources, improve the local economy, create recreational opportunities for residents and
1 The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of the US National Park Service.
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visitors, and guide the future of the area. While they may not use the term cultural landscapes, they share much common ground with organically evolved continuing cultural landscapes (Mitchell et al., 2002). Traditionally, valued landscapes in North America have been identified as the vast wilderness parks the Y parks in the United States (Yellowstone, Yosemite National Park) and the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. There is no question of their value and of the very significant role they continue to play both in the conservation of habitat and biological diversity and in the North American psyche. Management of these important natural area preserves has, however, also evolved from a refuge approach to situating them in their larger ecosystems, relating them more closely with their neighbours, and employing more public engagement. There is growing recognition in North America of the link between culture and nature in such parks, as illustrated particularly in two major publications, Linda McClelland, Building the National Parks: Historic Landscape Design and Construction (1998) and Ethan Carr, Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service (1998). The emergence of cultural landscapes as an integral part of cultural heritage also coincided with recognition in the natural heritage community that areas long identified as pristine wilderness and celebrated for their ecological values untouched by human activity were often the homelands of indigenous peoples. Their management of these landscapes altered the original ecosystem, but equally it contributed to the biological diversity long regarded as the result of natural factors, contributing to the value of wilderness. Cultural diversity thus often coincides with rich biological diversity (Phillips, 1998). In contrast to the visitor and the scientist, who perceive wilderness in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve on Canadas west coast, the Haida people see their homeland, Haida Gwaii, fertile with historical and spiritual evidences of centuries-long occupation. While the physical resources are largely natural, cultural values transform them from solely natural environments to associative cultural landscapes. UNESCO initiatives relating to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, such as the Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (1998) and the proposed Convention (2001), address associative values including languages, rituals and social practices, cosmologies and knowledge systems, and beliefs and practices about nature, which are especially relevant for understanding associative cultural landscapes. The relationships between nature and culture, as well as national and local interest, have led to many types of comanagement strategies linking non-governmental organizations, private landowners and citizens, and various levels of government. One example in the United States has been the designation of partnership parks where the Congressional legislation establishing a national park specifies local partners and their role in conservation of the area (Tuxill and Mitchell, 2001). At Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Chase County, Kansas, the 10,894 acre (4,408 ha) national park was established to preserve, protect, and interpret for the public an example of tallgrass prairie ecosystem [and] the historic and cultural values represented on the Spring Hill Ranch (Fig. 2). The 1996 Congressional legislation establishing the preserve limited federal ownership to no more than 180 acres (72.8 ha) and stipulated that the preserve be managed in conjunction with the property owner, the non-governmental National Park Trust. The legislation also created a thirteenmember Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve advisory committee to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior (Slaiby et al., 2002). The changing environment of cultural landscapes has stimulated new policies and guidelines to direct the management of places. In the United States, a number of publications have provided multiple tools for identifying, understanding, and managing cultural landscapes. Preservation Briefs No. 36, Protecting Cultural Landscapes (Birnbaum, 1994) and A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports (Page et al., 1998) offer guidance in analysing, documenting and protecting cultural landscapes. The Secretary of the Interiors Standards with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes provides direction for decision-making about cultural landscapes, which is particularly useful for designed historic landscapes (Birnbaum and Peters, 1996). There is less guidance available for continuing and associative landscapes, but recent literature such as Saving Americas Countryside (Stokes et al., 1997) and Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities (Howe et al., 1997) gives examples of successful approaches. In Canada, Parks Canadas implementation of value-based management in accordance with its Guiding Principles and Operational Policies, including the Cultural Resource Management Policy, applies well to cultural landscapes (Parks Canada, 1994). The concept of Commemorative Integrity provides direction for decision-making based on historic value, which may encompass ecological, social and spiritual values associated with the historical significance of the place. Commemorative Integrity Statements for cultural landscapes have proved very useful management tools because they clearly articulate values, identify related resources, and specify objectives which measure the health or wholeness of the site by respecting the values and protecting the resources (Parks Canada, 2002). Cultural Landscapes. Cultural Resources (1997), a Parks Canada training video, and an American film, Connections: Preserving Americas Landscape Legacy (1996), are among the communication tools developed to expand understanding of cultural landscapes and their management. While much of this material focuses on approaches particularly applicable to the wide range of designed landscapes, including rural properties, many of its methodologies and analyses are also very useful for understanding and treating components of evolved continuing and associative landscapes.
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Contributions to management experience from new disciplines, new policies and active communities in the last ten years have broadened understanding and conservation practice for cultural landscapes. Some promising initiatives have responded to the challenges, including building awareness and involvement, managing by values and promoting sustainability in cultural landscapes. This paper examines three key management challenges and describes some creative responses to these challenges: (1) respecting cultural diversity and intangible heritage; (2) engaging local people and communities in landscape stewardship; and (3) protecting biological diversity, traditional cultures and economic sustainability. riginal world view sees a holistic universe in which the cosmological, geographic, ecological, cultural and spiritual are intimately intertwined. Physicist David Peat, speaking of an ancient medicine wheel in the Canadian prairies, points out that a medicine wheel is more than a pattern of rocks, it is the relationship between the earth and cosmos, it is a circular movement, a process of healing, a ceremony, and a teaching (1996, p. 5). Aboriginal peoples intimate knowledge of the natural resources and ecosystems of the territories they traditionally occupied, and the respect they have for the spirits that inhabit these areas, moulded life on the land. Through shapes, names, spirits and related behaviour, places act as mnemonic devices for recalling the narratives which instruct the people from generation to generation in knowing and living with these complex landscapes. Protection of these places including language, names and traditions is key to long-term survival of aboriginal cultures (Buggey, 1999). In Canada, the stimulus of World Heritage acknowledgement of the validity of cultural landscapes contributed to national designation of aboriginal cultural landscapes. They are based in community identification and management of places which aboriginal peoples rather than primarily archaeologists, historians and other conservationists consider to be important. The Kazan River Fall Caribou Crossing is one of a number of aboriginal cultural landscapes lying within the traditional territories of different aboriginal groups in different regions that have been designated as national historic sites in Canada since 1992 (Fig. 4). In each case, the indigenous owners of the area have actively participated in the identification of lands to be commemorated, the reasons for designation, the significant values and resources that comprise the historical importance, and the forms of recognition and interpretation. The aboriginal group typically spearheads the ongoing management. The reasons for listing must be rooted in what the indigenous people consider to be significant. While this approach may not sound remarkable, these nationally designated cultural landscapes represent a sea-change from the earlier focus on archaeological sites to commemorate the history of aboriginal peoples. The Kazan River Fall Caribou Crossing lies on Inuit-owned lands in the traditional territory of the Harvaqtuurmiut people in Canadas new northern territory, Nunavut, in the eastern Arctic, where 85% of the population are Inuit. The Harvaqtuurmiut identified the Fall Caribou Crossing site as significant because of its importance to their way of life and their cultural traditions. Here the 320,000-strong Kaminuriak caribou herd, whose calving grounds are nearby, crosses the river in its annual spring and fall migrations that have shaped the seasonal round of the inland Inuit for centuries. Traditional beliefs and practices guided preparation and behaviour for the hunt. Intimate knowledge of the land and respect for it, and the products of the annual fall hunt, enabled the Inuit to survive for centuries through the long, dark and viciously cold winters in these tundra barrenlands. As well as archaeological remains such as hearths, food caches and hunting blinds, inuksuit
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(figures formed of stacked rocks) mark the landscape. Place names serve as reminders for events, resources and dangers that guide the Inuit in reading the land; songs composed primarily of series of place names tell their journeys (Keith, 1995). As Peter Ernerk, Deputy Minister in the new government of Nunavuts Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, observed on the occasion of the political creation of the territory in 1999, the landscape speaks Inuktitut. Protection for the cultural landscape requires integration of agreed management objectives with local planning, economic development, tourism initiatives and associated funding sources. Following from the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the Nunavut Act (1993), Inuit Impact and Benefits Agreements ensure integration of the regional economy and Inuit culture in all planning and development in the territory. For the Fall Caribou Crossing, the Commemorative Integrity Statement and the subsequent Conservation and Presentation Report, developed jointly by the Harvaqtuuq Historic Site Committee of Baker Lake and Parks Canada, present a strategy for protecting the cultural landscape. A set of goals and actions, rooted in Inuit traditional beliefs and practices and respect for the Elders, address land-use policy and issues, archaeological remains, river hydrology and monitoring the health of the Kaminuriak caribou herd and the Kazan River. In addition, they provide for recording Inuktitut place names, oral traditions and archaeological sites into the Geographical Information System (GIS). To ensure that information about the importance, values and objectives of the site are available for planning purposes, the report was forwarded to the Nunavut Planning Commission. Provisions introduced into the Keewatin Regional Land Use Plan provide protection from development in the historic site area, including low-impact land-use and prohibition of new permanent structures to avoid damaging archaeological resources and disturbing movement of the caribou (Fig. 5). Transmitting the Conservation and Presentation Report to the Nunavut Planning Commission and the Nunavut Water Board, gaining commitment from the commission to maintain the GIS database, and using the regional landuse plan to achieve some of the objectives, illustrate the potential for linking protection for aboriginal cultural landscapes with local planning processes. In addition to these planning initiatives, the community carries out a Guardian Monitoring Program through which members report observations of significant changes, threats or looting during occasional site visits. Traditional Inuit values and beliefs give direction for proper conduct in visitation, operation, protection and interpretation at the Crossing (Harvaqtuuq, 1997). Conservation planning and presentation undertaken for the cultural landscape have thus been designed to safeguard the integrity of the traditional relationship of the inland Inuit to the Fall Caribou Crossing.
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is a mosaic of naturally regenerated mixed hardwood stands (sugar maple, beech, white ash), with hemlock and white pine, interspersed with plantations. Covering about 30% of the forest, the plantations were established from the 1870s to the 1950s, primarily as a method of reforesting the barren hillsides, which had been cleared previously for agriculture and lumber. The plantations also served as a demonstration of innovative forestry practices introduced by Frederick Billings in the late nineteenth century. Many of these plantations are non-native species such as Norway spruce, Scotch pine, and European larch, which were commonly imported at that time from Europe, where the science of forestry was much more advanced. A gift to the American public from Mary and Laurance Rockefeller, Marsh-BillingsRockefeller NHP is a partnership park managed by the US National Park Service in co-operation with the Woodstock Foundation and the Billings Farm & Museum. The park, which opened in 1998, demonstrates stewardship through park management and interprets stewardship to the public through a variety of outreach programmes, focused primarily on forest management. The ongoing development of a forest management plan draws on the knowledge of the academic and professional community as well as the local community, which has a sense of ownership and a long history of recreation in the park. The park conducts forest management workshops with multiple partners, and demonstrates value-added products through production of fine furniture, a regional tradition (Fig. 6). As a new chapter in its legacy of forest stewardship, the park is currently examining the feasibility of conducting and interpreting third-party certification. One of the fastestgrowing developments in sustainable forestry, certification provides recognition of good forest management through credible, independent verification of best practices and public identification of associated products (National Park Service, 2002a; Slaiby et al., 2002). To cultivate the next generation of stewards, MarshBillings-Rockefeller NHP and the Conservation Study Institute have been co-operating with the Green Mountain National Forest and two non-profit educational organizations, Shelburne Farms and the National Wildlife Federation, on a place-based educational programme, A Forest for Every Classroom: Learning to Make Choices for the Future of Vermonts Forests. This programme is a professional-development programme for teachers with a primary objective to build knowledge of local resources, create a community-based network and engage teachers and their students in civic stewardship. The project partners invited the Vermont public to participate in conceptualization and development of this programme. Over a two-month period, five diverse groups of citizens, comprising teachers, foresters, conservationists, loggers and woodworkers, met in a series of forums to discuss what forest stewardship means and what the next generation of forest stewards should be taught using forests as classrooms. Emerging from these conversations was a collaborative vision, which urged the development of students citizenship skills and understanding of place. This approach forges strong bonds between teachers and students with their local woodlands and communities. It seeks to build long-term, in-depth relationships among schools, private and public stewards, local resource specialists and forest users. In the broadest context, it emphasizes critical thinking about making choices, so that students may become effective citizens in democratic processes through stewardship (National Park Service, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c). The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is a successful interstate example of engaging local residents from multiple communities in developing a vision for the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of this nationally significant industrial landscape. Nearly 400,000 acres (162,000 ha) bordering 46 miles (74 km) of the Blackstone River, the corridor crosses central Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island. Designated by an act of the US Congress in 1986 to preserve and interpret for present and future generations the unique and significant value of the Blackstone Valley, the area includes twenty-four cities, towns and villages, and almost 1 million people. Unlike traditional national parks, the federal government does not own or manage any of the land or resources in the corridor. Instead, dozens of local municipalities, businesses, nonprofit historical and environmental organizations, educational institutions, many private citizens, two state governments and the National Park Service work together through a Corridor Commission to protect the valleys special identity and prepare for its future (Fig. 7). Operating within a working landscape of strongly independent New England communities, the commission leverages limited human and financial resources to carry out a geographically broad mission (Blackstone, n.d.). Without authority to own land or powers to regulate land-use, the commission has had to be exceptionally entrepreneurial in its outreach and ability to be responsive to opportunities. It has learned to do this successfully, largely by relying on a combination of public education, public-private partnerships, and targeted investments. The commission identifies its strength as its ability to integrate issues related to the environment, preservation, land-use planning, and community and economic development. While other organizations have chosen to concentrate on one or two of these issues, the commission feels that, in the long run, this integrated approach is strategic and will enhance public engagement in the conservation of the Blackstone River Valley (Blackstone, 1998).
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scapes often involve many landowners and stakeholders over multiple jurisdictions, so their conservation requires partnerships and flexibility. The following examples from ranches in the western United States illustrate innovative and entrepreneurial approaches that capitalize on the cultural traditions of a region to revitalize economies through collaboration, integrate natural resources protection and experiment with value-added, place-based products. The Malpai Borderlands is a million acre (405,000 ha) region lying just north of the US-Mexican boundary, along the Arizona/New Mexico border. Today, thirty-five ranching families and various state and federal agencies own and manage the land, sharing a long history of conflicting interests and antagonistic relationships. Ranching, the traditional socio-economic life of the region since the late nineteenth century, has become increasingly threatened by such changes as escalating land values and fragmentation of the open landscape by home site and sub-division development. The centuries-old native desert grassland communities, with a rich diversity of plant and animal species, were ecologically fragile and fire-dependent systems that had been transformed through overgrazing and fire suppression into less-desirable range dominated by woody plants. In the early 1990s, a group of neighbouring ranchers began to discuss their mutual problems; in 1993 they formed the Malpai Borderlands Group, now a nonprofit organization. This community-based ecosystem management effort illustrates how a focus on what is right for the resources of the region provides common ground for multiple stakeholders with divergent interests to cooperate on long-term sustainability of both ranching life and biological diversity (Bernard and Young, 1997; Schumann, n.d.). The formation and collaborative approach of the Malpai Borderlands Group represents a dramatic departure from the previous strategies of lobbying and fighting, rhetoric and rancour. The founding ranchers sought a more positive, proactive way to take control of their problems, one that would create more effective, lasting solutions. Through discussions with representatives from The Nature Conservancy, a national conservation organization that protects land for biological diversity, and federal and state agencies, they found common ground for the conservation of biological diversity and ranching: unfragmented, open space grassland landscapes. One rancher explained: Its the lifestyle that the ranchers are fighting for as well. We have to take care of the land so we can stay here. We want to be ranchers. We want the open space lifestyle (Bernard and Young, 1997, p. 124). This identification of shared interests and building trust over time became the basis for new co-operative strategies between private landowners and public land managers. The group began with fire management and evolved a more comprehensive natural resource management and rural development agenda, including ecosystem planning and associated scientific research through local, state and federal agencies. One of the most successful efforts focused on creation of grass banks in co-operation with The Nature Conservancy. Many ranchers have ranges in degraded condition, but are unable to take their cattle off the range to rehabilitate it. With grass banking, ranchers exchange access to grass for specific ecological protection on their own lands. Individual ranchers are also given the opportunity to work with range managers to develop a sustainable grazing plan for their land (Fig. 8). The programme is entirely voluntary, gives ranchers more flexibility, allows renovation of public and private lands, and has allowed many ranchers to make their business profitable again. The 322,000 acre (130,000 ha) Gray Ranch, approximately one-third of the Borderlands region, has exceptional grassland and riparian significance, including distinct soils and landforms, and high species diversity. In 1990, this ranch was purchased by The Nature Conservancy; it is now owned, with certain conservation restrictions, by the local private, non-profit Animas Foundation. A member of the Malpai Borderlands Group, the foundation is dedicated to protecting the ranchs ecological values as well as the cultural and economic heritage of the region (Bernard and Young, 1997; Schumann, n.d.). The Malpai Borderlands Group is one of the best examples of ranching collaboration in the west and is representative of a wider trend (Williams, 2003). A second related example, from the Yampa River Valley in north-western Colorado, illustrates an entrepreneurial approach to preserving the ranching way of life in face of development pressures and rapidly increasing land values. A variety of strategies have been developed to conserve the natural and agricultural heritage of the valley, including testing innovative ranching and grazing practices, conservation easements purchasing the ranchers right to develop the property and establishment of the Yampa Valley Beef Corporation. In 1998, an alliance of ranchers, conservationists, business owners and officials collaborated to develop ways to counter the enticement of selling ranch land by offering the valleys ranchers premium prices for beef raised on conserved land through creation of a niche market. Attracted by this concept of selling a beef product that protected the working landscape and its biological diversity, The Nature Conservancy became a partner in the effort. In 2000 and 2001, more than twenty ranchers sold more than 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg) of beef, and 50% of the cattle had grazed on land protected by conservation easements. The Economic Development Committee supported the opportunity to link local ranches more closely with the resort economy. Local restaurants, particularly the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation, and grocery stores became the primary market, but sales on the Internet were also explored. Today, a portion of the corporate profits are donated to a local land trust for preservation of open space, but sustaining the local ranching lifestyle is the primary motivation for participation in the programme (University of California, n.d.; Yampa Valley Land Trust, n.d.). A similar market-based landscape conservation strategy, Conservation Beef, has been initiated in the Madison
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Valley in Montana, also in co-operation with The Nature Conservancy (Conservation Beef, n.d.). Led by Brian Kahn, the strategy is about informed consumer choice in support of protecting ranches as well as biological diversity. Producing mature, grass-fed, free-range beef requires relearning older ranching traditions and then combining this with landscape conservation on ecologically significant lands (Kahn, 2003). Conservation Beef provides technical assistance on stewardship plans. On the most significant and fragile habitats, permanent conservation easements are encouraged. In 2001, Conservation Beef was formed as a limited liability company with The Nature Conservancy as a full partner (The Nature Conservancy, n.d.). At the time of writing, three ranches in the Madison Valley are participating in the programme, and two others in California are in negotiations. They have had good customer response, world-class chef recognition, and great interest in the ranching community. The remaining challenge for Conservation Beef is to reach large-volume markets and to create year-round supplies, which will require raising beef in a variety of landscapes. All these examples are relatively recent and have yet to be tested by time and circumstances; however, they offer promise for long-term management of working cultural landscapes and may provide a model that can be applied elsewhere. Recently, the National Cattlemens Association and The Nature Conservancy worked closely together on national legislation and funding through the Farm Bill to authorize US$250 million over six years to purchase easements on over 200 million acres (81 million ha) of prairie and native grasslands. This collaboration was possible only after years of co-operating on the ground in many western areas to keep ranches intact and viable, while protecting their natural resources. In face of the land development pressures of increasing urbanization in the west, it will continue to take this type of private-public cooperation to sustain ranching as a cultural tradition and also to conserve the rich biodiversity of the landscapes. defined character of the cultural landscape. This substantial broadening of the concept of cultural landscapes demands different styles of leadership that are respectful, collaborative and flexible. While this represents tremendous progress, the need remains to integrate cultural landscapes effectively within North American society. The opportunity exists, however, with a more inclusive approach, for cultural landscape conservation to touch the lives of many citizens and engage them in caring for the special landscapes of their communities.
References
ALANEN, A. R.; MELNICK, R. Z. (eds.). 2000. Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America. Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins University Press. BERNARD, T.; YOUNG, J. 1997. Finding the radical center: the Sky Islands of the American southwest. In: The Ecology of Hope. Communities Collaborate for Sustainability, Chap. 7, pp. 11226. Gabriola Island, BC, New Society Publishers. BIRNBAUM, C. A. 1994. Protecting Cultural Landscapes: Planning, Treatment and Management of Historic Landscapes. Preservation Briefs No. 36. Washington, DC, National Park Service. See http://www2.cr.nps.gov/tps/briefs/brief36.htm BIRNBAUM, C. A.; PETERS, C. C. (eds.). 1996. The Secretary of the Interiors Standards with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes. Washington, DC, National Park Service. BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR. n.d. See http://www/nps/gov/blac/home.html BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR COMMISSION. 1998. Reprinted 1999. The Next Ten Years, An Amendment to the Cultural Heritage and Land Management Plan. Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission. BROWN, J.; MITCHELL, B. 1997. Extending the reach of national parks and protected areas: local stewardship initiatives. In: J. G. Nelson and R. Serafin (eds.), National Parks and Protected Areas: Contributions to Heritage Conservation, Tourism, and Sustainable Development. Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag. (Nato ASI series G-40.) BUGGEY, S. 1999. An Approach to Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes. Ottawa, Parks Canada. Seehttp://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/aborig/HSMBC/ hsmbc1_e.htm CARR, E. 1998. Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service. Lincoln, Neb., University of Nebraska Press. CONSEIL DU PAYSAGE QUBCOIS. 2000. See http://www.paysage.qc.ca
Conclusion
The past decade has seen enormous expansion of the concept of cultural landscapes in North America. Much greater awareness, understanding and recognition of the values and opportunities in these large, multi-stakeholder, multi-jurisdictional places have resulted in multidisciplinary initiatives that encompass the interaction of culture and the natural environment, the socio-economic needs of communities and the culture of the people who live there. Intangible heritage often plays a crucial role in decisionmaking about these cultural landscapes, in concert with conservation of the areas physical resources and sense of place. The meanings that people in these lived-in landscapes attach to them, and their active involvement, have become core elements in protecting and managing these places and in retaining their essential character while managing change. Sustainability includes ecological, economic, social and cultural values that are integral to the
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CONSERVATION BEEF. n.d. See www.conservationbeef.com CRESPI, M. 2001. Raising muted voices and identifying invisible resources. Cultural Resource Management [CRM], No. 5, pp. 46. GROTH, P.; BRESSI, T. W. (eds.). 1997. Understanding Ordinary Landscapes. New Haven, Conn./London, Yale University Press. HARVAQTUUQ HISTORIC SITE COMMITTEE; PARKS CANADA. 1997. Fall Caribou Crossing National Historic Site, Conservation and Presentation Report, including Commemorative Integrity Statement. Baker Lake/Ottawa, Harvaqtuuq Historic Site Committee/Parks Canada. HAYDEN, D. 1995. The Power of Place. Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. HOWE, J.; MCMAHON, E.; PROPST, L. 1997. Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities. Washington, DC/Covelo, Calif., Island Press. KAHN, B. 2003. Telephone interview with Nora Mitchell, 7 January. KEITH, D. 1995. The Fall Caribou Crossing Hunt, Kazan River, Northwest Territories. Ottawa, Parks Canada. (HSMBC 1995-28.) MCCLELLAND, L. F. 1998. Building the National Parks: Historic Landscape Design and Construction. Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins University Press. MITCHELL, N.; SLAIBY, B.; BENEDICT, M. 2002. Local community leadership: building partnerships for conservation in North America. Parks, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 5566. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. 2002a. Marsh-BillingsRockefeller National Historical Park, A Report for the Years 2000 & 2001. Woodstock, Vt., National Park Service. See also http://www.nps.gov/mabi/ . 2002b. Conservation Study Institute, A Report for the Years 2000 & 2001. Woodstock Vt., National Park Service. See also http://www.nps.gov/csi/ . 2002c. The National Park Service and Civic Engagement. The report of a workshop held December 68, 2001, in New York City. Philadelphia, Pa., National Park Service. PAGE, R. R.; GILBERT, C. A.; DOLAN, S. A. 1998. A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques. Washington, DC, National Park Service. PARKS CANADA. 1994. Guiding Principles and Operational Policies. Ottawa, Parks Canada. See http://www2.parkscanada.gc.ca/Library/PC_Guiding_ Principles/Park1_e.htm . 2002. Guide to the Preparation of Commemorative Integrity Statements. Ottawa, Parks Canada. See http://www2.parkscanada.gc.ca/library/CIS/english/index_ e.htm PEAT, F. D. 1996. Blackfoot Physics. A Journey into the Native American Universe. London, Fourth Estate. HILLIPS, A. 1998. The nature of cultural landscapes a nature conservation perspective. Landscape Research, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 2138. RUSSELL, E. W. B. 1997. People and the Land through Time: Linking Ecology and History. New Haven, Conn.,/London, Yale University Press. SCHUMANN, R. R. (comp.). The Malpai Borderlands Project: a stewardship approach to rangeland management. In: Impact of Climate Change and Land Use on the Southwestern United States. See http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/sw/responses/malpai/ SLAIBY, B.; MITCHELL, N.; MITCHELL, B.; BUGGEY, S. 2003. Cultural Landscape Managers Handbook. See www.nps.gov/csi STOKES, S. N.; WATSON, A. E.; MASTRAN, S.; NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION. 1997. Saving Americas Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation. Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins University Press. THE NATURE CONSERVANCY. n.d. See http://nature.org, especially http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/mon tana/news/news208.html TUXILL, J. L. 2000. The Landscape of Conservation Stewardship: The Report of the Stewardship Initiative Feasibility Study. Woodstock, Vt., Marsh-BillingsRockefeller National Historical Park/Conservation Study Institute/The Woodstock Foundation, Inc. TUXILL, J. L.; MITCHELL, N. J. (eds.). 2001. Collaboration and Conservation: Lessons Learned in Areas Managed through National Park Service Partnerships. Woodstock, Vt., Conservation Study Institute. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, COOPERATIVE EXTENSION. Yampa Valley Beef/Sierra Nevada Beef. See ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/1808/3690.pdf (also 3689, 3692, 3693) VON DROSTE, B.; PLACHTER, H.; RSSLER, M. (eds.). 1995. Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag. WILLIAMS, J. 2003. Telephone interview with Nora Mitchell, 27 January. Jamie Williams is Montana State Director, The Nature Conservancy. YAMPA VALLEY LAND TRUST. See http://www.yvlt.org/index.html
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2 1
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, National Park Service
These twenty-three designated National Heritage Areas, where culture and nature together have shaped the landscape, are managed by partnerships of residents, businesses and local, state and federal governments.
3 This rare surviving example of tallgrass ecosystem at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas, is also valued for its historical associations with the transition from open range to enclosed holdings wrought by late-nineteenth-century cattle companies.
Susan Buggey
4 Aboriginal cultural landscapes embody the relationships of Canadas Aboriginal peoples to land and place and help to preserve their cultures.
Dan Pag, Archaeological Services Branch, Parks Canada
Mennonites arriving in western Canada settled in distinctive street villages on the open prairie such as Neubergthal, Manitoba, where the patterns, resources and traditions of their culture are preserved today. 5
7 Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, is one of many sites in the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor that recounts the early history of water-based industry. Today, the site is managed by a non-profit organization, chartered by the state, and interpreted by citizen volunteers. Forestry Demonstration Workshop at Marsh-BillingsRockefeller National Historical Park, Vermont, is one of many stewardship activities that engage local people in managing the landscape.
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Amy Kuzma
The caribou trails at Piqqiq, Kazan River Fall Caribou Crossing, Nunavut, embody the integrated relationship of the Harvaqtuurmiut people and the natural environment.
North America
This paper examines some issues in the development of thinking about cultural landscape in Canada over the last decade, touching on three major points: an international meeting held in Montreal on cultural landscapes in May 1993; a brief overview of some initiatives developed in this area over the past ten to fifteen years; a major study carried out on an important Canadian cultural landscape, the Rideau Canal Corridor. A decade ago there seemed to be a fair amount of excitement about cultural landscapes. As a field of study coming into its own, it attracted attention at different levels. The amendments to the World Heritage Operational Guidelines drawn up at La Petite Pierre in October and adopted at the December 1992 Santa Fe session of the World Heritage Committee provided a great deal of the momentum for other events. ICOMOS created a Landscapes Working Group involved with the review of these guidelines which produced a newsletter with worldwide circulation. In Canada, cultural landscapes attracted professionals from the historic gardens field but also from more general history and conservation fields. The concept of cultural landscapes was not invented at this time but these activities began to draw people together and provide a name for something they had already been doing. In February 1993, the Government of Canada held a workshop defining cultural landscapes for the benefit of their professionals.
creation of an inventory of cultural landscapes in southwestern Ontario, the US Secretary of Interior Standards for the identification of cultural landscapes, issues in Australia and Sri Lanka, and finally to the more global situation involving the status of cultural landscapes within World Heritage. Out of the four days of presentations and discussion came the Montreal Declaration. The six points of the declaration were principally aimed at increasing awareness at the national and international levels and building a network of professionals in this area. This component of the meeting in Ferrara is entitled Management challenges and new partnerships. Various presentations have provided different examples of partnerships, including World Bank involvement and international co-operation between countries. At the local level, the discussion can be focused on creating local partnerships in cultural landscape conservation. Presentations have already been made on partnership building in communities of Italys Cinque Terre, the Loire Valley in France and with Australias Aboriginal peoples. A cultural landscape, unlike a single monument, is more likely to cover a large area and have multiple owners or stakeholders. As in the case of the conservation of historic towns, any successful conservation programme must build consensus between those stakeholders.
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The Government of Canada also began to take a proactive approach to management of cultural landscapes. Policy to assess proposed federal sites was developed for parks and gardens (1994), rural historic districts (1994), and aboriginal cultural landscapes (1999), to name a few. The management of some of these landscapes is aided by application of a particular made-in-Canada device, a Commemorative Integrity Statement which identifies both the value to be conserved and the relative health of the site. In the mid-1990s, I was part of a team commissioned by the federal government (the owner of the canal basin) to examine the canal and its surrounding corridor. The character of the canal corridor was increasingly threatened from many areas, much of which related to changing economics and residential patterns. Farming and agriculture were changing and many farms were being abandoned or expanded into large industrial farms. Moreover, the canal was becoming an increasingly attractive place to live. The suburbs of both the major urban centres anchoring the canal were expanding along the waterway, as well as many of the hamlets along the corridor. The recreational houses that had developed along the lakes and rivers in the cottage country in the central portion of the canal were also changing and being turned into permanent homes. A couple of issues that emerged during the study are relevant to our discussions here. The first is the methodology developed to identify and describe the qualities of the corridors cultural landscape. The other issue I would like to treat is the complexity of ownership. The canal passes through a number of municipalities, impacts on hundreds of private owners, and is subject to government regulations at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. First, methodology. David Jacques, a member of our project team, developed an innovative methodological approach for analysis of the landscape. This approach used historic analysis rather than field survey to clarify thinking about significance. We identified fourteen development phases or historical overlays, defining each in terms of dates, process involved and subsequent impact on the landscape. In reviewing all the overlays, it became possible to assess which left significant imprints on the contemporary landscape and then relate those to features identified during fieldwork. Consequently, landscape features that might initially seem inconsequential could be better understood and appreciated when understood within their larger historic context. This methodology became important for effective partnership building and dealing with conservation issues over the large area covered by the canal corridor. Local planners and community members were provided with a tool for landscape analysis that was deliberately simple and easily understood. The study team had neither the time nor the mandate to analyse the entire cultural landscape. The future success and utility of the study depended on acceptance at the local level. To this end, the project included personalized studies for each township explaining how they might extend this analysis to their own particular situation. My second point is the concern that local stakeholders lacked a shared vision for the future of the landscape. This again relates to this ongoing theme of partnership building. As discussed above, much of the canal is in private ownership. Farms, cottages, resorts and suburban homes line the canal. The corridor itself encompasses twenty-six townships in which there are over a dozen towns, villages and hamlets. The provincial government of the Province of Ontario is responsible for much of the policy affecting landuse. In addition to owners and legislators, there are many different interest groups with a stake in the canals future (tourism associations, historical societies, environmental conservationists, cottage and residents associations).
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Although there had been some attempt to co-ordinate official responses to development proposals, there were no built-in mechanisms to address the many concerns of these diverse groups and the regulations of eight government departments. Consequently regulations could be contradictory and action to protect the canal incoherent. The study recommended a co-ordinating commission to bring together decision-making authorities. This body was meant to provide a means to represent the diverse interests present in the corridor, ensuring a forum for discussion and debate and that all interested parties were abreast of current issues. While this commission has not yet been created in line with the studys recommendations, an Advisory Committee for the Rideau Canal has been formed. This body advises the Canal Superintendent on related local issues and includes representatives from various communities along the canal and from interest groups such as tourism and the environment. Its visions reach beyond the canal corridor. In November 2001, the committee sponsored an international meeting inviting canal experts from the UK and the USA to exchange experiences. Considerable enthusiasm for World Heritage inscription of the canal and its associated landscape has been re-emerging locally and the Advisory Committee is taking steps to respond to this interest. It is this local partnership that has begun ultimately to develop the seeds of a shared future in a significant cultural landscape. Out of the four days of presentations and discussion, came the Montreal Declaration
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Uluru
Uluru (the Anangu name for a waterhole located high on the rock, which gives its name to the entire monolith) is undoubtedly the most distinctive landscape symbol of Australia, nationally and internationally. Its striking features, and those of Kata Tjuta (meaning many heads), convey to Anangu the durability of Tjukurpa; and for nonAnangu they are a potent reminder of the aeons over which the landscape of the Australian continent has evolved and eroded. A number of Anangu have spoken of their awe on first travelling to Uluru, on foot or camel, seeing it rising like a gigantic sandhill out of the desert. For Anangu the explanation of the formation of Uluru and Kata Tjuta is founded in Tjukurpa. Tjukurpa unites Anangu with each other and with the landscape. It embodies the principles of religion, philosophy and human behaviour that are to be observed in order to live harmoniously, with one another and with the natural landscape. Humans and every aspect of the landscape are inextricably one. The geological interpretations of the forces that formed Uluru are very different from those of Anangu. The huge sandstone monolith of Uluru is 9.4 km in circumference and rises about 340 m above the surrounding plain. Kata Tjuta comprises thirty-six rock domes of varying sizes. One rises about 500 m above the plain and is the highest feature in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are remarkable and unique in geological landform features set in a contrasting sand plain environment. These contrast the scenic grandeur of the monoliths and create a landscape of outstanding beauty and symbolic significance to both Anangu and European cultures.
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the traditional way of life, and in which the evolutionary process is still in progress. At the same time it exhibits significant material evidence of its evolution over time (UNESCO, 1999). and Associative Cultural Landscape The final category is the associative cultural landscape. The inclusion of such landscapes on the World Heritage List is justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic, or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent (UNESCO, 1999). Value and Significance of the Property as Cultural Landscape Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994 as a cultural landscape representing the combined works of nature and of man and manifesting the interaction of humanity and its natural environment as both a continuing and associative cultural landscape. Uluru-Kata Tjuta was the second associative cultural landscape to be inscribed on the World Heritage List, a category that is still very under-represented. The protection of the intangible heritage and the values of associative cultural landscapes is crucial to their continuity and survival. As an associative landscape, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park has powerful religious, artistic and cultural qualities. The landscape of Uluru-Kata Tjuta is in large part the outcome of millennia of management using traditional Anangu methods governed by Tjukurpa. Tjukurpa is founded upon a time when Tjukuritja (ancestral creation beings), who combined the attributes of humans, animals and plants, camped and travelled across the landscape. As they did so they shaped the features of the land. Their bodies, artefacts and actions became places imbued with their presence. The actions of Tjukuritja established the code of social behaviour followed by Anangu today, which governs both interpersonal behaviour and management of the environment. Ceremonies must be, and are, performed according to Tjukurpa. Each living person embodies one of these beings: animals and plants are also their descendants. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that contemporary Anangu cultural adaptations developed during a period of social and cultural evolution spanning the last 5,000 years. The park thus illustrates human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and opportunities presented by the natural environment. Tjukurpa is an outstanding example of the indigenous Australian philosophy often referred to in English as the Dreaming. Anangu prefer the term Dreaming not to be used as it implies events that are unreal, untrue or imaginary. Tjukurpa is the foundation for Anangu. It provides the rules for behaviour and for living together. It is the Law for caring for one another and for the land that supports existence. The forms of Uluru and Kata Tjuta incorporate the actions, artefacts and bodies of the ancestral beings celebrated in Anangu religion and culture through narratives, elaborate song cycles, visual arts and dance. The numerous paintings in the rock shelters at the foot of Uluru express the ideas (kulini, or physical thinking) of Tjukurpa. They were made as a teaching tool, to record, for example, an actual emu hunt by the artist or the story of Lungkata, Blue Tongue Lizard Man, who stole an emu hunted by the Bell Bird Brothers (panpanpalala) during Tjukurpa. Norman Tjalkalyiri, one of the parks Anangu rangers, describes the painted shelters as an Anangu blackboard. It is incumbent on modern Anangu to follow Tjukurpa, both in their management of the environment and in their social relationships. The modern animal descendants or counterparts of ancestral beings such as Malu (the red plains kangaroo Megaleia rufa), Kanyala (the wallaroo or euro Macropus robustus) and Ngintaka (the perenty or monitor lizard Varanus giganteus) must be treated with respect and strict procedures must be observed when they are butchered. Resources gathered in the landscape must be shared according to principles laid down in Tjukurpa, even if those resources have been hunted with rifle or were reached by means of a four-wheel-drive vehicle. It is these spiritual associations with country that constitute the associative cultural landscape of Uluru-Kata Tjuta identified on the World Heritage List and that are protected through the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Management, the Central Land Council and the Office for Joint Management.
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[There is powerful Aboriginal Law in this place. There are important songs and stories we hear from our elders, and we must protect and support this important law. There are sacred things here, and this sacred Law is very important. Government Law is written on paper. Anangu carry our Law in our heads and in our souls.] Some places are so secret that not even their names can be revealed. For this reason, information about Kata Tjuta is restricted to senior men only. One of the most important aspects of Tjukuritja places is the way they are interconnected by the iwara (tracks) of the Tjukuritja. Iwara also provide spiritual and social pathways between Anangu. There are some sites at Uluru that are of special significance to women, others to men, and access to these places is restricted. Anangu created paintings on the rock faces at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Some rock paintings reflect aspects of their religion and ceremonies while others tell stories and help to educate people. These paintings are examples of a particular genre of art that is valued by Anangu. Anangu use the same symbols today in sand drawings, body painting and acrylic paintings. Archaeological sites document the history of occupation of the park in the context of Central Australia during the last 30,000 years and its adaptations, social and economic, to the changing environmental history of the region. There are also places in the park which are important for their association with recent history, and are part of the personal history of people living in the park today.
Natural criteria against which the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 and cultural criteria against which the property was inscribed in 1994
Examples of natural World Heritage values of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park for which the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 and cultural World Heritage values for which the property was subsequently inscribed in 1994
Natural criterion (ii) Outstanding examples representing significant ongoing geological processes, biological evolution and mans interaction with his natural environment
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park includes the formations of Uluru and Kata Tjuta which are exceptional examples of tectonic, geochemical and geomorphic processes. The World Heritage values include: Uluru, one of the largest monoliths in the world, which is affected by erosional processes including sheeting of rock parallel to the surface and granular disintegration known as cavernous weathering; Tectonic, geochemical and geomorphic processes associated with the inselbergs of Uluru and Kata Tjuta which result in the different composition of these two relatively close outcroppings, their differing extent of block tilting and types of erosion, the spalling of the arkose sediments of Uluru and massive off-loading of conglomerate at Kata Tjuta; The desert ecosystems of the property which - represent a cross-section of the central Australia arid ecosystems; - demonstrate effects of topography, soil formation, fire in arid environments; - include a representative sample of the plants and plant associations of central Australia; - provide habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal species, including: - species with remarkable adaptations to the arid environment; - species of conservation significance; - include ecosystems and species that show evidence of having been modified and sustained by the land management practices of the Anangu, including the use of fire.
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Natural criteria against which the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 and cultural criteria against which the property was inscribed in 1994 Examples of natural World Heritage values of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park for which the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 and cultural World Heritage values for which the property was subsequently inscribed in 1994
Natural criterion (iii) Contain unique, rare and superlative natural phenomena, formations and features and areas of exceptional natural beauty
The huge formations of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, including one of the largest monoliths in the world, Uluru, which are set in a contrasting sand plain environment provide a landscape of exceptional natural beauty and scenic grandeur. The World Heritage values include: the remarkable and unique natural geological and landform features formed by the huge formations of Uluru and Kata Tjuta set in a contrasting sand plain environment; the immense size and structural integrity of Uluru which is emphasized by its sheer, steep sides rising abruptly from the surrounding plain; the relative simplicity of the monolith of Uluru and its contrasts with the many domes of Kata Tjuta; and the exceptional natural beauty of the viewfields in which the contrasts and the scenic grandeur of the formations create a landscape of outstanding beauty of symbolic importance to both Anangu and European cultures.
Cultural criterion (v) Outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or land-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is an outstanding example of the traditional human settlement and land-use known as hunting and gathering. Relatively few contemporary hunting and gathering cultures now exist throughout the world. The World Heritage values include: the continuing cultural landscape of Anangu Tjukurpa (see note below) that constitutes the landscape of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and which: - is an outstanding example of a traditional human type of settlement and land-use, namely hunting and gathering, that dominated the entire Australian continent up to modern times; - shows the interactions between humans and their environment; - is in large part the outcome of millennia of management using traditional Anangu methods governed by Tjukurpa; - is one of relatively few places in Australia where landscapes are actively managed by Aboriginal communities on a substantial scale using traditional practices and knowledge that include: - particular types of social organization, ceremonies and rituals which form an adaptation to the fragile and unpredictable ecosystems of the arid landscape; - detailed systems of ecological knowledge that closely parallel, yet differ from, the Western scientific classification; and - management techniques to conserve biodiversity such as the use of fire and the creation and maintenance of water sources such as wells and rock waterholes.
Cultural criterion (vi) Directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is directly and tangibly associated with events, living traditions, ideas and beliefs of outstanding universal significance. The World Heritage values include: the continuing cultural landscape of Uluru and Kata-Tjuta National Park which is imbued with the values of creative powers of cultural history through Tjukurpa and the phenomenon of sacred sites; the associated powerful religious, artistic and cultural qualities of this cultural landscape; and the network of ancestral tracks established during Tjukurpa in which Uluru and Kata Tjuta are meeting points.
Further information relevant to the World Heritage values of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park may be found in the following documents: Nomination of Uluru (Ayers Rock Mount Olga) National Park for Inclusion on the World Heritage List. Prepared by the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, November 1986. Renomination of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park by the Government of Australia for Inscription on the World Heritage List. Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories, 1994.
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Cultural and Natural Resource Management
Manta atunymananyi, kuka tjuta atunymananyi munu mai tjuta atunymananyi. Kaltja atunymananyi munu Tjukurpa kulu-kulu. Park atunymananyi. Kumuniti atunymananyi. Judy Trigger Looking after land. Looking after animals, and bush tucker. Looking after culture and Tjukurpa. Looking after park. Looking after community. Looking after the country in accordance with Tjukurpa is the prime responsibility shared by Parks Australia and Anangu within the fabric of joint management. The listing of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park as a World Heritage cultural landscape is recognition of this commitment to joint management and confirmation of the inseparable nature of cultural and natural resource management in the park. The richness of the range of culturally significant places is of great contemporary and archaeological importance. The entire landscape of the park is a living example of Anangu culture. Management practices must aim to retain and protect cultural as well as biodiversity values. Anangu Living Culture and Sites of Significance An essential part of keeping Tjukurpa strong, and thus the associative and continuing landscape values of the World Heritage property, is the maintenance of traditional ceremonial activities. While such matters are very much the responsibility of the traditional owners (Nguraritja), it is appropriate for the Plan of Management to assist, by ensuring that significant or sacred sites and material within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park are managed in such a way that Nguraritja continue to have access to and control over them. Conversely it is also important that such sites are protected from unauthorized or inappropriate use or access. This assists in protecting the values of the continuing cultural practices recognized in the World Heritage cultural heritage listing. The park offers access to and information about the details and significance of some sites, but access to other sites and information about them is not freely available to visitors. Some sites are known only to adult Anangu men and women, some are restricted to women, and some to men. For example, a large proportion of the area of Kata Tjuta is associated with ritual information and activities that must remain the exclusive prerogative of senior men. Access to the area and information about the area is therefore restricted. Not all sites that are important under Tjukurpa are restricted, and park visitors have many opportunities to learn about Anangu and their relationship to the land. Access to many parts of the park has been negotiated and agreed with Nguraritja. The existence and protection of sacred sites enhances the experience of visitors who can come to understand the country and the nature of knowledge in Anangu culture and who appreciate the shared responsibility that comes with a visit. Measures such as erection of low barrier fencing and signs have been taken to help Anangu to protect sites and Tjukurpa, while helping visitors to continue enjoying the park within the context of culturally appropriate behaviour. The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act, 1989 (No. 29 of 1989), and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (and regulations made under the act) provide for formal legal protection of sacred sites and other sites of significance to Anangu in the park. The Heritage Conservation Act (NT) is also relevant to the protection of sacred sites and certain objects. The Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 is also available as a protection mechanism of last resort. Anangu Oral History, Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Property Rights Anangu have very detailed knowledge of the flora, fauna, habitats, seasonal changes, landscapes, places and history of the park. Until very recently little of this knowledge was recorded, and even today much of it remains unrecorded. Conservation of oral history and tradition is vital to the well-being of Anangu culture and the continuing management and authenticity and integrity of the World Heritage values of the park. Conservation of Anangu oral history and traditional knowledge is also vital to understanding the cultural landscape in the future and vital to the success of land management in the park and the region. It is integral to the programmes for reintroducing rare and endangered species, for fire management, waterhole maintenance, flora and fauna identification, and the control of introduced animals. The maintenance of Anangu traditional knowledge is fundamental to the conservation of the parks cultural values. The need to protect Nguraritja intellectual and cultural property rights is highlighted by the scientific and broader communitys growing awareness of, and respect for, the depth and value of traditional knowledge. Anangu do not want to lose the knowledge and understanding associated with the past, and the use of contemporary media to record, store and use their knowledge along Anangu cultural lines will help to prevent such loss. The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park has a Cultural Centre located beside the park headquarters approximately 1 km from the base of Uluru. Its opening in 1995 coincided with celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the handback of the park to the traditional owners. It helps Anangu to keep the Law straight by explaining, teaching and celebrating Tjukurpa for the public. Inma and public Tjukurpa
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from the park were recorded for displays, films and soundscapes and a range of Anangu oral histories are presented in the light of Tjukurpa. Joint management aims to balance Anangu cultural and ecological conservation and management practice with Western conservation and management practice. An example of this is the Uluru fauna survey, which recognizes the knowledge and expertise Anangu possess in relation to the ecology of their country. This information has complemented and improved Western scientific survey methods. The survey is producing valuable material for the better management of the park and for the better maintenance of Tjukurpa. It may be seen that the continual association of Anangu with their land, through traditional practice, ensures that the authenticity and integrity of the values of the World Heritage property are maintained and protected. This association is supported and protected through the Joint Board of Management of the National Park and the parks Management Plans. Resource Management Management of natural resources and ecosystems takes account of ecological and human patterns and processes operating and interacting at the local and regional levels. Just as Tjukurpa and the responsibilities it entails extend far beyond the parks boundaries, so too must the parks ecosystems be viewed within the regional context if natural resources are to be effectively managed. A number of long-term research and monitoring studies in the park have been instrumental in contributing to an understanding of the processes operating in the landscape of arid Australia. These have also included social-sciencebased studies which are an essential prerequisite to effective management. The studies findings have led to the formulation of a number of basic principles relating to the functioning of arid-zone ecology. Two important workshops have also been held to help to develop natural resource management strategies for the park:
Natural Resource Workshop, August 1997; and Biodiversity and the reintroduction of native fauna at
fire management; native fauna; introduced pests and animals; native flora; introduced plants; bioprospecting; research and monitoring; and environmental impact assessment.
To comply with the World Heritage Conventions Operational Guidelines, park management will continue to keep abreast of the latest best-practice developments in the management of natural resources. The policies and prescriptions contained in the current Plan concerning the management of the parks cultural values are all based upon respect for Tjukurpa. Tjukurpa encompasses the history, knowledge, religion and morality that forms the basis of Anangu values and how Anangu conduct their lives and look after their country. The Plan of Management lists a range of actions that Anangu deem necessary for the maintenance of Tjukurpa and thus the protection of cultural values. This list includes:
passing on knowledge to young men and women; teaching how to find water, bush foods and bush
medicine;
visiting sacred sites; remembering the past; keeping visitors safe keeping women away from
mens sites and keeping men away from womens sites; teaching visitors, park staff and other Piranpa how to observe and respect Tjukurpa; making the country alive, for example, through stories, ceremonies and song; putting the roads and park facilities in proper places so that sacred places are safeguarded; cleaning and protecting rock waterholes inside and outside the park; looking after country (for example, systematic patchburning); the collection of bush food and hunting. These requirements are translated into a suite of prescriptions in the Plan of Management. These include:
a review of all visitor infrastructure in relation to its
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, September 1999 These workshops have assisted in setting directions for joint management of the parks natural resources, and have assisted in the development of the latest Plan of Management. Key areas for natural resource management in the plan are:
waterhole maintenance; geology, landforms and soils; hydrology;
site management, protection and maintenance programme; continued patrolling and monitoring of cultural sites with restricted public access; ensuring that interpretive material provided in the park informs visitors of their responsibilities in relation to access to, and photographing of, cultural sites;
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implementation of the recommendations contained in
Lambert and Eldershaw (1997) and earlier archaeological reports concerning the conservation of rock art as a matter of priority; development and implementation of a programme of rock art and other heritage resource conservation; the undertaking of systematic surveys of the archaeological resources of the park; preparation of a proposal for best-practice protection of Anangu cultural material for consideration and approval by the Board of Management; preparation of additional interpretive material concerning the conservation of rock art and other cultural resources of the park; supporting Anangu in establishing a strategic and formal process for the collection, storage and passing on of traditional knowledge and oral histories including: - Anangu ecological knowledge and understanding; - Anangu knowledge of water resources and the relationships between these and biodiversity: - Anangu botanical knowledge; - Anangu knowledge of regional hydrology and major rainfall events; and - traditional fire management knowledge. supporting Anangu aspirations regarding the development and implementation of a programme of waterhole maintenance; continuing to use traditional Anangu knowledge together with western scientific understanding in managing the values of the park; and supporting occupancy of homelands and assisting with their management. A number of the Plan of Management prescriptions relating to cultural values are implemented by Parks Australia staff as a matter of course through day-to-day operations. These include:
involving Anangu in burning and flora and fauna
The principles for cultural heritage management in the park are that it
is a joint management initiative controlled by senior
skills in planning, administration, budgeting, policy development and implementation; needs the involvement of Parks Australia and Community rangers, and traditional persons trained in cultural heritage management; extend beyond the parks boundaries, and where Parks Australia resources are involved, subject to management guidelines approved by the Board. An essential part of keeping Tjukurpa strong is the maintenance of traditional ceremonial activities. While such matters are very much the responsibility of Nguraritja, the Plan of Management assists in this by ensuring that significant or sacred sites and material within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park are managed in such a way that Nguraritja continue to have access to them. Conversely it is also important that such sites are protected from unauthorized or inappropriate use or access. This assists in protecting the values of the continuing cultural practices recognized in the World Heritage cultural landscape inscription. A cultural heritage workshop was held during October 2000 to consider management issues in relation to the parks cultural resources (places of cultural significance including places of historic interest and significance for Aboriginal history) and to develop strategies and guidelines for their conservation and management needs. A cultural heritage sites plan containing a comprehensive programme for the protection of cultural heritage sites is currently being prepared following this workshop. The parks natural and cultural values are now being protected by Anangu and researchers working together in accordance with Tjukurpa. Earlier management concentrated on surveying and making an inventory of resources. This has evolved into a broader approach whereby management of ecosystems takes account of ecological and human patterns and processes operating and interacting at the local and regional levels. Just as Tjukurpa and the responsibilities it entails are not contained within the parks boundaries, so too must the parks ecosystems be viewed within the regional context if natural resources are to be effectively managed. Assessment of performance according to actions defined in the management plan will be the key measure for the success of policies, programmes and activities for the preservation and presentation of the property.
survey work;
encouraging the involvement of young people in
this work to facilitate the passing on of traditional knowledge; routine patrolling of sacred sites; a rock art monitoring programme; the closure of parts of the park as requested by Anangu for ceremonial purposes; and maintenance of the Office for Joint Management. Furthermore, some work has already been undertaken concerning the recording of traditional ecological knowledge and the recently completed Visitor Infrastructure Master Plan for the park includes a number of proposals aimed at moving existing infrastructure further away from sacred sites. All the Plan of Management prescriptions are required to be implemented within the next seven years.
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Policies, Programmes and Activities Implemented for the Preservation and Presentation of the Property
The presentation and preservation of the property is achieved through key programme areas of visitor management and interpretation and natural and cultural resource management Visitor Management and Interpretation The principles that underpin all interpretation are: 1. Interpretation of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park will be from an Anangu and Tjukurpa perspective. 2. Anangu will have first option of presenting interpretation. 3. 3 Anangu speak for themselves and their group. 4. Piranpa (non-Anangu) staff will only interpret Anangu stories and culture with the permission of Anangu. 5. Interpretation will generally be presented in Anangu first person. 6. Geological, biological, archaeological and post-contact history will be interpreted in ways that complement the primary Anangu interpretation. 7. Anangu voices, images and statements will be used where possible. 8. The intellectual and cultural property rights of the parks traditional owners will be protected and considered in all interpretation, and royalties paid where appropriate. 9. Actions concerning photos, voices and names of deceased people will be decided by their families. 10. Speakers will decide whether they wish their words to be presented as exactly including broken English or edited as standard English. 11. Key language words/phrases will be used and interpreted to get across key messages e.g. Tjukurpa. 12. Key messages will be translated into both dialects by accredited translators. 13. Care will be taken to ensure stories are kept straight (accurate and culturally appropriate). 14. Where possible, interpretation techniques will take into consideration the needs of visitors with disabilities, including visual, hearing and mobility impairments. The Cultural Centre is the focus for interpretation and education services in the park. Interpretive stories and messages in the centre concentrate on aspects of traditional Anangu culture including Tjukurpa, living off the land, and Anangu ecological knowledge. The Cultural Centre is a purpose built building in a dramatic architectural style. It houses displays, cultural activities, park information and three Anangu enterprises (Ininti Souvenirs and Caf, Maruku Arts and Crafts, the Walkatjara Art Centre and Anangu Tours). The centre provides a wonderful opportunity to interpret the park to visitors. It was developed as a collaborative project between Anangu, architects, designers and interpreters; and Anangu are supportive of the centre, its design, the display content and its use for cultural activities. The displays at the Cultural Centre presents key messages about Tjukurpa and the Anangu relationship to the park. They also emphasize appropriate behaviour. Themes in the Cultural Centre can be summarized as:
looking after law (Tjukurpa) looking after land looking after visitors
The face-to-face cultural activities at the Cultural Centre are a key element of its success. The building is designed to provide spaces for these activities. An objective of the centre is to be a vibrant active place where the displays and infrastructure support the cultural activities of Anangu. The displays in the centre also address contemporary topics relating directly to the park, such as joint management and culturally appropriate visitor behaviour including the no climb message. Beyond the Cultural Centre, on-site interpretation and education facilities by the park are largely restricted to the two interpretive trails at Uluru (the Mala and Mutitjulu Walks), both of which focus on interpreting Tjukurpa stories and rock-art sites. There is increasing emphasis on encouraging visitors to undertake walks around the base of the rock as an alternative to climbing. A 1997 report on visitor management noted that the park was providing high satisfaction levels to a wide range of different visitor types (TRC, 1997). The implementation of the Draft Infrastructure and Interpretation Plans for UluruKata Tjuta will further improve and enhance the success of the presentation and interpretation of the park and its values to the visitor. In addition to this, Tour Operator workshops are also held to help to educate both tour operators and, in turn through better educated tour operators, the wider visiting public.
History of Conservation
Since proclamation of the National Park in 1977, and more particularly since its transfer to the traditional owners and subsequent lease-back to the Director of the National Parks and Wildlife, significant steps have been taken to ensure the protection and conservation of the park. These include:
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Relocation of tourist accommodation and airport
facilities outside the park and sealing of roads within the park; Initiation of a fire-control programme based on traditional Anangu burning regimes and scientific research; Control of feral animals, closing of walking tracks created by ad hoc visitor use, and implementation of a regeneration programme; Completion of a consultancy study of visitor use, experiences, and perceptions of the park, the findings of which have been taken into account in the current Plan of Management; Completion of a fauna survey with full Anangu participation; Imposition of restrictions on the importation of exotic flora into the park; Appointment of a Board of Management with an Anangu majority; Training and appointment of Anangu personnel in the preservation and conservation of the park and the presentation of its values to visitors; Implementation of a Plan of Management developed with public participation; Identification of sacred sites and provision of advice to visitors on the restrictions on access to these areas; Introduction of park interpretive and educational programmes to inform visitors of the uniqueness and conservation value of the park.
place, and a national symbol will continue to be reflected in a high standard of management and protection under law, policies and programmes.
Bioprospecting without adequate control may become
a threat to the integrity and identity of Anangu. Under the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Section 301, Division 6, provision is made for control of access to biological resources through the Regulations of the act. There is, however, as yet no such regulatory protection currently in place. Through cooperation between the Department of the Environment and Heritage and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Management, measures to control access to biological resources and share any benefits arising from their use will be developed in a manner consistent with the values expressed in the Plan of Management.
Current Protective Measures (legal and/or traditional) and How they are Implemented
National Legislation, Policies and Strategies Key Parks and Land Rights Legislation The legislative foundation for the joint management arrangements applying to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is found in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. Over the years both acts have been amended in concert to ensure that a solid, workable basis exists for the complex actions and activities of joint management. Relating to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act):
provides for Aboriginal land leased to the Director to
on the continuation of their traditional, ongoing cultural practices and ceremonies. Any lessening of the Anangus maintenance of country as a result of external influences would be a threat to their culture and, subsequently, to the integrity and values of the World Heritage property. Ongoing monitoring of the social and cultural impacts of external pressures on the Anangu culture is crucial to ensure its integrity, and the integrity of the World Heritage values for which the property was inscribed. In moving towards the requirement for periodic reporting in 2002, the World Heritage Branch of EA will develop indicators and processes for ongoing monitoring in order to assess these impacts. This process will be developed in consultation with the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Management and Parks Australia. It will recognize that any such monitoring process needs to be carried out by Anangu with the continued support and endorsement of the Department of the Environment and Heritage through the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Management and Parks Australia. In this way, the special nature and cultural values of Uluru-Kata Tjuta will be fully protected. Its importance as a sacred
a park and determines the process that must be followed in its preparation; requires the Director to manage the park in accordance with the Plan of Management and establishes a dispute-resolution process if disagreement arises between the Director and the board. the board has the function of making decisions in relation to the management of the park that are consistent with the plan.
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The EPBC Act provides automatic protection for World Heritage properties by ensuring that an environmental impact assessment process is undertaken for proposed actions that will, or are likely to, have a significant impact on the World Heritage values of a declared World Heritage Property. This process allows the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Heritage to grant or refuse approval to take an action, and to impose conditions on the taking of an action. The EPBC Act imposes substantial civil and criminal penalties on a person who unlawfully takes an action that has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the World Heritage values of a declared World Heritage Property. All properties that have been inscribed on the World Heritage list are automatically declared World Heritage Properties and are therefore protected. The EPBC Act also gives the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Heritage the power to declare other properties where:
the property has been nominated for, but not yet
Relating to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976:
provides for the granting of traditional Aboriginal land
to Aboriginal Land Trusts for the benefit of Aboriginals entitled by Aboriginal tradition to the use or occupation of the land; allows land trusts to lease land vested in them; makes it a condition of the grant to certain land trusts (including Uluru-Kata Tjuta Aboriginal Land Trust) that the relevant land council enter into an agreement with the Director to direct the land trust to grant a lease to the Director for the purpose of a national park; ensures that the interests of traditional owners are respected in any such arrangement; provides for the establishment of Aboriginal land councils to fulfil several functions, including to represent the interests of certain Aboriginals in relation to matters affecting Aboriginal land. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is in the area for which the Central Land Council is established under the act. Other Relevant Commonwealth Legislation Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is on the register of the National Estate and consequently the Minister and Director are subject to provisions of the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 relating to any activities that may affect to a significant extent the parks National Estate values. Strategies and Policies In recent times a number of significant strategies and policy documents have been developed by the Commonwealth Government or its agencies. Some are pertinent to the management of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and must be taken into consideration in determining policies. Among them are the following:
National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable
inscribed on the World Heritage list; or the property has not been nominated for World Heritage listing but the Minister believes that the property contains world heritage values that are under threat. Historically, the protection and management of many of Australias World Heritage Properties has involved a cooperative approach between the Commonwealth Government and state governments, with relevant state agencies taking responsibility for on-ground management. The EPBC Act creates a mechanism for the Commonwealth and a state to enter bilateral agreements to achieve the requirements of the act and to remove duplication of regulatory processes. This provides an avenue for formalizing existing cooperative arrangements through Commonwealth accreditation of state World Heritage management plans and environmental impact assessment processes. In order to be accredited, the relevant state plan or process must not be inconsistent with the Australian World Heritage management principles, which are regulations made under the EPBC Act. The EPBC Act continues the existing joint management arrangements between the Commonwealth and the traditional owners of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Kakadu World Heritage Properties. The EPBC Act replaces and significantly improves on the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983 (WHPC Act). The WHPC Act allowed the Commonwealth to make regulations to protect Australias World Heritage Properties from threatening actions identified in the regulations. This legislation, in effect, operated as a last resort mechanism for stopping specific actions. In contrast, the EPBC ensures upfront protection and improved management for the world heritage values of Australias World Heritage Properties.
Development
National Strategy for the Conservation of Australias
Biological Diversity
National Tourism Strategy National Ecotourism Strategy National Indigenous Tourism Strategy National Aboriginal and Islander Health Strategy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissions
Environment Policy. Northern Territory legislation and policies Northern Territory laws are applicable to the park and people in the park provided those laws are not inconsistent with the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 and Regulations or other Commonwealth laws. They must also not interfere with the performance of functions and exercise of powers by the Director of National Parks and Wildlife. Among Northern Territory laws of relevance to the park are those relating to criminal
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and illegal activities, sacred sites and heritage, traffic and motor vehicles, work health and occupational health and safety, and provision of services (power, water and sewerage). The operation of Northern Territory laws relating to wildlife conservation in areas adjoining the park may be of relevance given the need to manage the park in a regional context. Given the proximity of Yulara and its airport to the park, Northern Territory government policies and actions relating to such activities as tourism and its promotion may have considerable effects on operations in the park. Among Northern Territory laws of potential relevance to the park are the following: Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1995 The Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1995 provides for the declaration of parks, reserves, protected areas and sanctuaries in the territory. It provides for the protection and conservation of wildlife (including plants and animals), and for the control of pests. It provides certain management powers on the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory (which is constituted under separate legislation). Those powers are relevant to parks and reserves under the act (not including UluruKata Tjuta National Park) and to wildlife conservation. Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act 1989 The Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act (1989) provides for the establishment of the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority. It allows for the recording and registration of sacred sites. It makes it an offence to enter, work on, use or desecrate a sacred site without a certificate from the Authority, and provides heavier penalties than alternative legislation. Some sites in the park have been registered under the act. Heritage Conservation Act 1991 The Heritage Conservation Act (1991) established a Heritage Advisory Council, which identifies and assesses places and objects for their heritage values, and makes recommendations to the relevant Minister about the declaration of heritage places and heritage objects. The act makes it an offence to work on, damage, demolish, destroy, desecrate or alter a heritage place or heritage object. The act also protects certain archaeological places and objects. Traditional protection of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is provided by Anangu through the practice of Tjukurpa. From the 1940s the two main reasons for permanent and substantial European settlement in the region were Aboriginal welfare policy and the promotion of tourism at Uluru. These two endeavours, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in conflict, have determined the relationships between Europeans and Anangu. In 1948 the first vehicular track to Uluru was constructed, responding to increasing tourism interest in the region. Tour bus services began in the early 1950s and later an airstrip, several motels and a camping ground were built at the base of the Rock. In 1958, in response to pressures to support tourism enterprises, the area that is now the park was excised from the Petermann Aboriginal Reserve to be managed by the Northern Territory Reserves Board as the Ayers Rock Mount Olga National Park. The first ranger was the legendary Central Australian figure, Bill Harney. Post-war assimilation policies assumed that Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people had begun a rapid and irreversible transition into mainstream Australian society and would give up their nomadic lifestyle, moving to specific Aboriginal settlements developed by welfare authorities for this purpose. Further, with increasing tourism development in the area from the late 1950s, Anangu were discouraged from visiting the park. However, Anangu continued to travel widely over their homelands, pursuing ceremonial life, visiting kin and hunting and collecting food. The semi-permanent water available at Uluru made it a particularly important stopping point on the western route of these journeys. beings and they are responsible for the protection and appropriate management of these lands. The knowledge necessary to fulfil these responsibilities has been passed down from generation to generation through Tjukurpa. During the 1870s, expedition parties headed by explorers Ernest Giles and William Gosse were the first Europeans to visit the area. As part of the colonization process, Uluru was named Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta The Olgas by these explorers in honour of political figures of the day. Further explorations quickly followed with the aim of establishing the possibilities of the area for pastoral expansion. It was soon concluded that the area was unsuitable for pastoralism. Few Europeans visited over the following decades, apart from small numbers of mineral prospectors, surveyors and scientists. In the 1920s the Commonwealth, South Australian and Western Australian governments declared the great central reserves, including the area that is now the park, as sanctuaries for a nomadic people who had virtually no contact with White people. Despite this initiative, small parties of prospectors continued to visit the area and from 1936 were joined by the first tourists. A number of the oldest people now living at Uluru can recall meetings and incidents associated with White visitors during this period. Some of that contact was violent and engendered a fear of White authority.
11. History
Aboriginal people and their culture have always been associated with Uluru. According to Anangu, the landscape was created at the beginning of time by ancestral beings. Anangu are the direct descendants of these
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By the early 1970s Anangu found their traditional country unprecedentedly accessible with roads, motor cars, radio communications and an extended network of settlements. At a time of major change in government policies, new approaches to welfare policies promoting economic self-sufficiency for Aboriginal people began to conflict with the then prevailing park management policies. The establishment in 1972 of the Ininti Store as an Aboriginal enterprise on a lease within the park offering supplies and services to tourists, became the nucleus of a permanent Anangu community at Uluru. The ad hoc development of tourism infrastructure adjacent to the base of Uluru that began in the 1950s soon produced adverse environmental impacts. It was decided in the early 1970s to remove all accommodation-related tourist facilities and re-establish them outside the park. In 1975 a reservation of 104 square km of land beyond the parks northern boundary, 15 km from Uluru, was approved for the development of a tourist facility and an associated airport, to be known as Yulara. The camping ground within the park was closed in 1983 and the motels finally closed in late 1984, coinciding with the opening of the Yulara resort. Confusion about representation of Anangu in decisionmaking associated with the relocation of facilities to Yulara led to decisions being made which were adverse to Anangu interests. It was not until the formation of the Central Land Council and the Pitjantjatjara Council in the 1970s that Anangu began to influence the ways in which their views were represented to government. On 24 May 1977 the park became the first area declared under the Commonwealth National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975, under the name Uluru (Ayers Rock Mount Olga) National Park. The park was declared over an area of 132,550 ha and included the subsoil to a depth of 1,000 m. The declaration was amended on 21 October 1985 to include an additional area of 16 ha. The Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission (the successor to the Northern Territory Reserves Board) continued with day-to-day management. During this period Anangu indicated their interest in the park and its management, including requests for protective fencing of sacred sites and permission for houses to be built for older people to camp at Uluru to teach young people about Tjukurpa. In February 1979, a claim was lodged under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 by the Central Land Council (on behalf of the traditional owners) for an area of land that included the park. The Aboriginal Land Commissioner, Mr Justice Toohey, found there were traditional owners for the park but that it could not be claimed as it had ceased to be unalienated Crown land upon its proclamation in 1977. The claimed land (other than the park) is now the Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust area to the north and east of the park. That decision, and the uncertainty about title for the park, heightened tension between the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments of the day. Negotiations over a joint management arrangement between the Northern Territory Government and Anangu based on grant of title to the park were undertaken but agreement on mutually satisfactory arrangements could not be reached. Anangu were also unwilling to accept Commonwealth Government proposals for establishment of an advisory committee to make recommendations to the Director of National Parks and Wildlife on park management. In line with commitments made by the newly elected Commonwealth Government in 1983, legislation amending the National Parks Act and the Land Rights Act came into force on 2 September 1985 to put in place joint management of the park between Anangu and the Commonwealth. These amendments provided for the area of the park to be granted as inalienable freehold land to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Aboriginal Land Trust with a condition that the land be simultaneously leased back to the Director of National Parks and Wildlife, to be managed under a Board of Management with an Anangu majority. During negotiations of these arrangements, Anangu achieved payment of a share of park revenue as annual rental for use of their land as a park. At a major ceremony at the park on 26 October 1985, the Governor-General formally granted title to the park to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Aboriginal Land Trust, which recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary of title. The inaugural Board of Management was gazetted on 21 April 1986 and held its first meeting the following day. In 1993, at the request of Anangu and the Board of Management, the official name of the park was changed to its present name, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Because of continuing opposition from the then Northern Territory Government to the new management arrangements for the park, the situation whereby the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory carried out day-to-day management on behalf of the Director became untenable. By May 1986 the arrangements that had been in place since 1977 were terminated and staff of the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, now known as Parks Australia, have carried out day-to-day management since that time. Although Anangu played a strong role in park management since receiving title to the park in 1985, they remained dissatisfied with their level of participation and influence in the tourist industry. In late 1995 traditional landowners instructed the Central Land Council to pursue, on their behalf, a native title claim over the Yulara town site. A claim was lodged and eventually accepted by the National Native Title Tribunal, without alterations, on 18 November 1997 and is before the Federal Court. In June 1999, while the latest Plan of Management was being prepared, the Commonwealths Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was enacted. The new law replaces the National Parks Act as the legal basis underpinning joint management.
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IUCN. Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland, World Conservation Union, 1994. JACOBSON, G.; LAU, G. J.; McDONALD, P. S.; JANKOWSKI, J. Hydrogeology of the Lake Amadeus Ayers Rock Region, Northern Territory. Bulletin 230. Canberra, Bureau of Mineral Resources, 1989. JOLLY, P. B. Ayers Rock Water Supply Investigation of Southern Aquifer System 1977. Report to Water Division, Department of Transport and Works. Darwin, DTW, 1970. JONES, R. Fire stick farming. Australian Natural History, Vol. 16, 1969, pp. 2248. LAYTON, R. Uluru: An Aboriginal History of Ayers Rock. Canberra, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1986. LAYTON, R.; TITCHEN, S. Uluru: An outstanding Australian Aboriginal cultural landscape. In: B. von Droste, H. Plachter and M. Rssler (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag, 1995. LOW, W. A., BAKER, L.; DOBBIE, W.; RYAN, W., GRATTIDGE, A.; MILLER; GILLEN, J. Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park Rabbit Control Program: Review of Warren Monitoring and Fumigation, February 1989 to May 1997. Report to Parks Australia. 1997. LOW, W. A.; COOK, J. Monitoring Revegetation of the Old Olgas Road in Uluru National Park: 1995 Annual Survey Preliminary Findings, Observations and Recommendations. Report to Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. Darwin, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1995. LOW, W. A.; DOBBIE, W. Rabbit Warren Ripping Program at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. Various reports from March to May to Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. 1989. LOW, W. A.; DOBBIE, W. R.; FOSTER, E. C.; dePREU, N.; DUNLOP, R. Monitoring Revegetation of the Old Olgas Road in Uluru National Park, 1992 and 1993. Report to Uluru National Park. Darwin, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1994. LOW, W. A.; ELDRIDGE, S. R. Monitoring Revegetation of the Old Olgas Road in Uluru National Park: 1994 Annual Survey: Preliminary Findings, Observations and Recommendations. Report to Uluru National Park. Darwin, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1994. LOW, W. A.; ELDRIDGE, S. R.; MOSS, V. M. Monitoring Revegetation of the Old Olgas Road in Uluru National Park. Report to Uluru National Park. Darwin, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1995. LOW, W. A.; FOSTER, E. Uluru National Park Rabbit Control Project: Initial Analysis of Herbage Recovery on Selected Rabbit Warrens 19891991 Data. Report to Australian Nature Conservation Agency. Unpublished, 1992. LOW, W. A.; GRATTIDGE, A.; ELDRIDGE, S. R. Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park Rabbit Control Project: Vegetation Monitoring of Ripped Warrens: Year 6, November 1994. Report to Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Darwin. Unpublished, 1995. LOW, W. A.; STRONG, B. W. Survey of Rabbits and Recommendations for their Control at Ayers Rock National Park. Report to Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory. Alice Springs, CCNT, 1981. MACMILLAN; AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE COMMISSION. The Heritage of Australia: The Illustrated Register of the National Estate. Melbourne, Macmillan/Australian Heritage Commission, 1981. MASTERS, P. Fire-driven Succession: The Effects on Lizards and Small Mammals in Spinifex Grasslands. M.App.Sc. thesis. Perth, Curtain University of Technology. Unpublished, 1991. McALPIN, S. Conservation of the Great Desert Skink, Egernia kintorei, at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, N.T. Final report for Project DN 67 to Australian Nature Conservation Agency. Canberra, ANCA, 1997. MORGAN, C. A Review of the Community/Park Liaison Officer Position. Report by Wynter Hill Consulting for Parks Australia. Unpublished, 1997. MORTON, S. R. The impact of European settlement on the vertebrate animals of arid Australia: a conceptual model. In: D. A. Saunders, A. J. M. Hopkins and R. A. How, Australian Ecosystems: 200 Years of Utilisation, Degradation and Reconstruction, Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia, Vol. 16, 1990, pp. 20113. MUTITJULU EMPLOYMENT EDUCATION AND TRAINING COMMITTEE. Mutitjulu Major Employment Strategy Proposal. Unpublished, 1998. OVINGTON, J. D.; GROVES, K. W.; STEVENS, P. R.; TANTON, M. T. A Study of the Impact of Tourism at Ayres Rock-Mt Olga National Park. Canberra, Department of Forestry, Australian National University, 1972. PEDLER, L. Fire and striated grasswrens in Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. In: L. G. Woodcock (ed.), Proceedings of the Back to the Future Natural Resources Research Workshop, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 2729 August 1997. Canberra, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 1997. (AGSO Record 1997/55.)
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PERRY, R. A.; MABBUTT, J. A.; LITCHFIELD, W. H.; QUINLAN, T.; LAZARIDES, M.; JONES, N. O.; SLATYER, R. O.; STEWART, G. A.; BATEMAN, W.; RYAN, G. R. Lands of the Alice Springs Area, Northern Territory. Land Research Series No. 6. Melbourne, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, 1962. PIPER, T. Conservation and hunting by Aboriginals in the top end of the Northern Territory. Australian Ranger Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1985, p. 19. PITJANTJATJARA COUNCIL INC. and Associated Organisations Award. 1991. REID, J. R. W.; HOBBS, T. J. Monitoring the Vertebrate Fauna of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park: Phase I. Final report to Australian Nature Conservation Agency. Alice Springs, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, 1995. . Monitoring the Vertebrate Fauna of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park: Phase II. Final report to Australian Nature Conservation Agency. Alice Springs. Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, 1996. REID, J. R. W.; KERLE, J. A.; MORTON, S. R. (eds.). Uluru Fauna. The Distribution and Abundance of Vertebrate Fauna of Uluru (Ayers Rock Mount Olga) National Park, NT. Kowari, Vol. 4. Canberra, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1993. REID, J. R. W.; MORTON, S. R. Distribution and Abundance of Vertebrate Fauna of Uluru (Ayers Rock Mount Olga) National Park. Report to Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Canberra. Unpublished, 1990. SAXON, E. C. (ed.). Anticipating the Inevitable: A PatchBurn Strategy for Fire Management at Uluru (Ayers Rock Mt Olga) National Park. Melbourne, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, 1984. SHAKESPEARE, I. Consultancy Organisational Development Report for Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. Report to Parks Australia by the Regional Manager Occupational Services. 1999. SHANNON, J.; GILLEN, G. Workshop summary. In: L. G. Woodcock (ed.), Proceedings of the Back to the Future Natural Resources Research Workshop, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 2729 August 1997. Canberra, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 1997. (AGSO Record 1997/55.) SMITH, D.; SUTHERLAND, J. Indigenous Protected Areas: Conservation Partnerships with Indigenous Landholders. Report to Indigenous Protected Areas Unit. Canberra, Environment Australia, 1996. SWEET, I. P.; CRICK, I. H. Uluru and Kata Tjuta: A Geological History. Canberra, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 1992. TWIDALE, C. R. Geomorphology. Sydney, Thomas Nelson, 1968. ULURU-KATA TJUTA BOARD OF MANAGEMENT; AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE. Uluru (Ayers Rock Mount Olga) National Park Plan of Management. Canberra, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1992. ULURU-KATA TJUTA BOARD OF MANAGEMENT; PARKS AUSTRALIA. Tjukurpa Katutja Ngarantja, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Plan of Management. Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2000. WALTERS, C. J.; HOLLING, C. S. Large-scale management experiments and learning by doing. Ecology, Vol. 71, 1990, pp. 20608. WATER DIVISION, NORTHERN TERRITORY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND WORKS. Ayers Rock Water Supply: Investigation of Southern Aquifer System 1977. Project 45, Report 9/1979. Darwin, DTW, 1979. WINTER HILL CONSULTING TEAM. The Black Plan: A Community Development Plan for Mutitjulu Community, Uluru. Unpublished, 1997a. . The Blue Plan: A Town Planning and Housing Handbook. Unpublished, 1997b. . The Gold Plan: A Business and Enterprise Plan for the Mutitjulu Community Council, Uluru. Unpublished, 1997c. . The Red Plan: A Training and Employment Plan for the Mutitjulu Community Council, Uluru. Unpublished, 1997d. WOODCOCK, L. G. (ed.). Proceedings of the Back to the Future Natural Resources Research Workshop, UluruKata Tjuta National Park, 2729 August 1997. Canberra, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 1997. (AGSO Record 1997/55.) WURST, D.; SAALFELD, W. K. Aerial Survey of Feral Camels and Other Large Vertebrate Species in the Alice Springs Region of the Northern Territory. Report to Australian Nature Conservation Agency. Canberra, ANCA, 1994. YEN, A. L.; REID, J. R. W.; WAINER, J. A pitfall trap survey of ground dwelling invertebrates. In: J. R. W. Reid and T. J. Hobbs, Monitoring the Vertebrate Fauna of Uluru-kata Tjuta National Park Phase II. Final report to Australian Nature Conservation Agency and Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation. Alice Springs, ANCA/CSIRO, 1996.
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Management
The key management objective is to sustain these landscapes while allowing both continuing use to local com-
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cies for retention of heritage values. The following eight issues recur in the management of many World Heritage landscapes, though they vary in detail and application depending on the category of cultural landscape and the social and economic environment of the place. Lack of Awareness of and General Education About World Heritage Values in Cultural Landscapes and Their Value to Society This can be addressed through mass media promotion, visitor centres at the properties with exhibitions and displays or guided tours, brochures and booklets, film and video. Popular community support for the conservation of the heritage values of a place often translates into political support when the values are threatened, for example by pressure for development or lack of resources for maintenance. The use of the World Heritage logo as an awareness-raising device and marketing brand is also to be encouraged in promoting the inscribed cultural landscapes. Need for Site-Specific Training for Those Working in World Heritage Cultural Landscapes to Ensure That All The Values of a Place are Managed Sensitively A range of skills is needed for managing cultural landscapes. Some generic management and planning skills are required in all areas of site management, such as organizational and financial skills. Specialist skills will be required depending on the natural, cultural and social features of the cultural landscape. For some cultural landscapes, maintaining local cultural knowledge will be paramount. However, traditional social settings and cultures that have been dissolved cannot be successfully recreated, only similar systems can be developed anew. The challenge then is to create new and alternative structures that allow revitalization rather than conserving traditions in museums or turning the landscape into a fossilized outdoor museum. Revitalization of local knowledge may occur when older knowledge is rediscovered and still existing forms of local knowledge are re-evaluated. This was highlighted in the restoration programme for the Kasubi Tombs in Uganda, in sustainable development policies for the Swedish archipelago fishing industry, and in indigenous knowledge of fire in vegetation management at Uluru in central Australia. Using Farming and Forestry Policies to Define What Changes can be Permitted in the Landscape While Still Maintaining Their Outstanding Universal Values, and What Techniques Can Be Used to Ensure This Many cultural landscapes are the result of productive use of the land, and support farming communities. The products of current technologies quick-growing forest plantations, new crops with a variety of visual effects as well as biodiversity impacts, new materials and forms such as plastic sheeting and wind farms will have an impact on our cultural landscapes. Given that cultural landscapes in the past have reflected the cultures of different periods (and local adaptations to prevailing techniques), we should permit change to continue in the category of evolving cultural landscapes. But what are the limits of acceptable change in land-use and agricultural production in such landscapes? The answer and challenge is to manage more efficient, intensive production that increases the prosperity of the farming communities so that the cultural heritage values in the landscape are not lost. If the material evidence of successive layers of landscape use remains intact, we need to decide what degree of interference or stitching in of new uses is permissible. This is a major global issue in cultural landscape maintenance and the answer depends largely on local conditions, where some trial and error may be acceptable so long as the patterns in the landscape which exhibit outstanding universal values are not compromised. Yet it is the human interaction with the landscapes which must remain intact over time. For different types of landscape vineyards, farmland, forests there is a role for specific landscape type guidelines to ensure that new built elements do not detract from the significant components and features in the landscape, for local trusts for conserving landscape components, and for a range of legal planning or permit arrangements in conserving landscapes with continuing agriculture and forestry. One of the most challenging tasks is to manage the visual values of the continuing landscape. There are many techniques now for assessing the ability of a landscape to accommodate or absorb new developments. The English Heritage Historic Landscape Project details some of these methodologies, which were underpinned by the principle that change when properly planned will usually be more acceptable than fossilization and will be sustainable. This means that the interaction with the landscape is controlled and planned rather than just happening by default, incremental change or overwhelming forces. Managing Tourism to Ensure Continuing Visitor Access to and Appreciation of the Landscape World Heritage tourism has brought employment to millions, often in remote parts of the world. It has provided inspiration, recreation, enjoyment and rest to countless visitors. But it has also destroyed and polluted unique, fragile and pristine environments, threatened local cultures, and devalued the heritage characteristics that make a site both of outstanding universal value and a desirable tourist destination. Tourism also offers a major avenue for public appreciation of the values of World Heritage cultural landscapes. In the twenty-first century, the tourist market places increasing importance on enjoying authentic experiences
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authentic settings, objects and stories, and if possible a guide or storyteller who lives in the setting and owns the objects and stories. Therefore using local people to interpret their heritage is likely to lead to high visitor satisfaction and increasing numbers of visitors. Tourism is a value-adding activity to the economic activities that have given rise to the distinctive cultural landscape. This is especially the case with rural landscapes and associative cultural landscapes. The huge increase in tourist numbers over the last decade visiting Cinque Terre by train and on foot is an indicator of this, while the increased numbers at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park are the result of intense marketing coupled with provision of access and facilities outside but immediately adjacent to the park. Tourism as a new industry can have a low impact on the cultural landscape yet assist in the transition to a more complex and diversified economic base for some communities, especially those more remote from metropolitan cities. Relationships between the environment and the economy and standards have to be further explored testing issues such as reinvestment of benefits into local communities, promotion of authentic local products, strategic alliances in provision of transport and accommodation. Tourism should be regarded as a positive influence on management of cultural landscapes and, if managed correctly, will build support for the conservation of cultural and natural heritage and provide income to assist those living in or managing the landscape. Finding The Resources to Ensure Economic Viability of Operations to Maintain the Values of the Cultural Landscape, Including User Pays Concepts and Other External Income Generating income in ways that do not conflict with heritage conservation and are culturally sensitive is a management challenge. It is difficult to generalize because management authority frameworks differ so much across the world and all have different rules concerning collection and expenditure of income. For designed landscapes such as gardens or for archaeological sites, where the managing authority controls or owns the property, income can be derived from entry charges, concessions, leases and licences. In larger continuing landscapes, the managing authority has planning controls only, the property is owned by many farmers or other landholders who collect the direct charges, and the managing authority is funded by taxes levied on the landholders. This authority may also involve farmers and landholders in the management, not only through subsidies but also through policies which will help them make a profit from sustainable management. There is an increasing literature on heritage economics, detailing a range of techniques that could be considered in cultural landscape protection: a. Sustainable development to support the site, as with tourism or continued farming. b. Directing the income from site operation to site management. c. Site sustainability through value adding to agricultural and tourism products. d. Labels guaranteeing the quality and origin of farm products. e. Public funding through agricultural subsidies for political or economic purposes (such as keeping people resident in the countryside, supporting exports, etc.) or through other sources of funding for rural activities such as housing repairs, one-off capital funding for infrastructure, training in new skills, oral history and archival recording, or unemployment benefits, which can be directed towards maintenance of heritage features in the cultural landscape. f. Private funding for programmes, such as establishing non-profit conservation trusts; encouraging fund-raising partnerships with for-profit concerns; tax breaks for charitable contributions; establishing special protected-area funds on the basis of contributions from the energy sector; private sector investment in sustainable micro-scale enterprises, especially in buffer zones, to ensure more equitable distribution of the benefits arising from such uses. Sponsorship of activities or site repairs is another major high-profile income generator. Developing Landscape Conservation Treatments and New Techniques for Managing Essential Components in the Designated Landscape and Allowing the Insertion of New Built Elements Given that the primary aim of site management is to retain the outstanding cultural values in the landscape, all conservation treatments must respect the existing fabric and maintain authenticity in materials, design, workmanship and setting so as to prolong the integrity of the cultural landscape and allow it to be interpreted. Care should be taken in introducing any new elements. Treatment actions range from cyclical maintenance to varying degrees of consolidation, restoration, continuing traditional ways of living, or even adaptive reuse. The appropriateness of treatments will also vary depending on the type and scale of the cultural landscape. In designed landscapes there may be reconstruction of missing elements as at Lednice (Czech Republic) or Potsdam (Germany), rehabilitation and restoration following damage as at Hampton Court Palace gardens (UK) and reconstruction via replanting as at Versailles (France) following the destructive storms of 1998. In other sites such as the alpine landscapes of the European transfrontier national parks, species that had disappeared, such as wolves, are being reintroduced. Management of Hadrians Wall illustrates the need for cooperation between a large number of diverse partners in the management of a linear cultural landscape farmers,
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tourists, archaeologists. Insertion of new cattle sheds into the landscape was a trade-off to ensure greater protection of the primary resource, the archaeological heritage. Protection also requires effective communication when so many players are involved. Coping With Impacts Caused by Processes and Events or Developments External to the Site Affecting or Threatening the Integrity of the Designated Cultural Landscape Threats to the integrity of World Heritage cultural landscapes may come from within or without. They can be natural events such as weather phenomena, or human-induced such as war or disease, or they can derive from the impact of management processes, such as from new developments in the landscape, provision of utility services, adaptation of historic structures for new uses, activities in the buffer zone with downstream effects, visitor pressures and associated infrastructure, or simply sheer ignorance of the consequences of actions. Sometimes the best heritage management outcome may arise from external processes such as through participation in the Environmental Impact Assessment process which leads to a new arrangement and acceptance by all stakeholders in that process. Strategies for improving the risk-preparedness of World Heritage cultural properties consider reducing the impact of natural disasters, armed conflict, industrial pollution and other hazards of human origin. These strategies can also be applied to cultural landscapes. There is a developing literature on both emergency preparedness and disaster management and long-term cumulative threats such as salinity impact on heritage sites. Supporting Communities Which Maintain Heritage Values Within the Cultural Landscape Especially Where the Associative Values of the Landscape Reside With Those Communities There is a large literature on community participation in planning and protected area management. But within cultural landscapes there are some very specific challenges: working with farming communities resident in the inscribed property to ensure continuing sustainability of the production and way of life; maintaining associative values in the landscape despite pressures such as youth migration and new technologies, and involving indigenous peoples who are the traditional custodians of the cultural values which are expressed in the landscape; engaging in social engineering to assist with maintenance of traditional activities (such as provision of housing for guest workers; allowing tourists to view traditional festivals) while respecting local community wishes (such as no photography of rituals). World Heritage associative cultural landscapes have special needs for strategies and actions to maintain the traditional associations which give that place its outstanding universal values. Identification of these associative values by a local community or special group occurs during the nomination process and they are confirmed by inscription. In order to conserve these associative values there is a need to pass on rituals and traditional knowledge to the right people culturally, that is, those who have been initiated or are next-of-kin. Maintenance of culturally viable or strong communities with these associative values is subject to similar pressures and problems throughout the world youth attracted to cities and new ways of life and being unwilling to undergo initiation and training in required rituals and obligations. Alternatively, young people may remain on site with no economic livelihood and fall prey to modern social problems, such as drugs and alcohol. This is relevant to some World Heritage cultural landscapes such as Uluru, Tongariro, the Philippines rice terraces, or Sukur (Nigeria). As well as opportunities to pass on traditional skills and knowledge, which are often dependent on being present in the landscape when seasonal changes and resources are available, managers of cultural landscapes have to assist in maintaining the health and well-being of those resident in the landscape. This is illustrated in the case of the community now resident at Uluru. Cultural associations must be maintained to keep the associative values alive as detailed in the original cultural landscape listing. For example, if no young people are working or living traditionally, as revealed by monitoring reports, then is the associative cultural landscape put on the World Heritage in Danger list or reclassified as a relict landscape? This issue must be addressed by World Heritage cultural landscape property managers. Summary These eight issues recur in landscape development and change, in identifying threatened but valued landscapes, in determining acceptable levels of intervention, and in managing old landscapes and making new ones. They occur worldwide as recent phenomena and must be addressed by World Heritage cultural landscape managers. The message from all this is that managers must know what values are found in their cultural landscapes and make sure that their management protects and enhances these values. But values are dynamic and evolve and change. Knowledge about the values must be updated, and therefore management strategies must be able to change to protect the outstanding universal values of World Heritage properties.
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Values
Landscapes have a range of values that communities recognize as important and want to conserve. Cultural and natural values are the qualities which make a place or landscape important. We tend to separate these qualities into natural and cultural, including historic and indigenous, but heritage managers are increasingly finding that the categories overlap to such an extent that responsible management demands that these values be catered for simultaneously. The World Heritage Convention recognizes the outstanding universal value of some cultural and natural heritage not only to each nation but to humanity as a whole. Its Operational Guidelines have ten criteria and tests for authenticity and integrity to be used in assessing whether a place has outstanding universal value. The Convention also requires periodic reporting on the condition of the values and whether they have changed. The following case study illustrates the updating of cultural values as a result of further and ongoing research into aspects of the archaeology and history of the Tasmanian Wilderness (Australia), a property inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1982 and expanded in 1989 in recognition of its outstanding World Heritage values. Features of outstanding significance include extensively glaciated landscapes; undisturbed habitats of plants and animals that are rare, endangered and/or endemic and represent a rich variety of evolutionary processes; magnificent natural scenery and an impressive assembly of Aboriginal sites that include cave art. Case study Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) covers approximately 20% of Tasmania, 1.38 million ha in the south-west of the island. It includes Tasmanias four largest national parks, a range of other reserves and some of the best wilderness areas in south-eastern Australia. During the 1989 World Heritage nomination process, the World Heritage Committee did not agree to some Aboriginal values being considered as World Heritage. Only those identified in the 1982 nomination are recognized. When the area was renominated in 1989, ICOMOS advised that further work was required to determine the status of the area. This work was specified in the 1992 and 1999 management plans for the TWWHA. This body of work has produced a greatly increased number of places with cultural values. These total 746 Aboriginal sites (307 new sites) and approximately 400 European historic sites. It has also allowed a richer, deeper and more intensive interpretation of the layered evidence in the landscape to be considered. No dramatic new discoveries have been made so as to alter the description of cultural heritage in the 1989 nomination, but the new information allows for consideration of new interpretations in accordance with the new World Heritage categories for cultural landscapes and modified cultural criteria. There are sites identified in the TWWHA which would add weight to the existing values identified as being of outstanding universal value. These sites meet World Heritage cultural criteria (iii), (v) and (vi) but represent a fuller appreciation of the values rather than just being related to aspects of archaeological significance of a culture that has disappeared. Human occupation for 36,000 years is however denied by the naming of the place as wilderness. More particularly, since rising sea levels separated Tasmania from the mainland about 12,000 years ago, Tasmanian Aboriginal culture has survived one of the longest-known periods of geographic and cultural isolation affecting a society. Archaeological surveys since 1982 have revealed occupation sites along the coastlines, at the mouths of the retreating glaciers in the Central Highlands, and along pathways linking plain and mountains. The TWWHA contains cultural landscapes and some of these contain outstanding universal values worthy of World Heritage listing. 1. For Aborigines the whole area is a cultural landscape and this belief could be sustained in a case for it as an associative cultural landscape in accordance with World Heritage category 39 (iii). The beauty of its superlative natural phenomena also contributes to this categorization. 2. Within the TWWHA there are areas that could be categorized as relict cultural landscapes in accordance with World Heritage category 39 (ii), and these relate especially to European land-use practices which have now ceased. The uniquely Tasmanian interaction of humans to the natural resource resulted in these distinctive landscapes: (a) the pining landscapes of the Gordon-Macquarie Harbour Raglan Range which illustrate the range of techniques used in this resource exploitation from the convict era of the early 1800s to the 1940s; (b) the hunting and snaring landscapes of montane grasslands on the Central Plateau, although it could be argued that they also illustrate both transference of European ecological knowledge and European adaptation to Aboriginal seasonal exploitation of native fauna through the reintroduction of traditional Aboriginal burning practices to the north-western montane grasslands. 3. Fire has been the agent maintaining a complex distribution of disclimax vegetation, which can be considered as a continuing landscape category for large areas within the TWWHA, especially the buttongrass plains/sedgeland which comprise 53% of the vegetation in the TWWHA (Jackson, 1999, p. 3). Fire not only produces a successional mosaic but causes extinction of
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communities and this level of displacement appears to demand a time span of human-induced fire sufficiently long enough to affect soil fertility. The palaeontological record in Tasmania shows a twofold increase in open vegetation relative to closed forest during the last glacial cycle. Eucalypt forest increased relative to rainforest, and charcoal increased relative to woody vegetation, and these changes occurred through a variety of climates (Jackson, 1999, p. 1). However, the most recent studies indicate that the noticeable increase in fire activity about 40,000 years ago, when there was no major climate change, is considered most likely to indicate Aboriginal burning. This accelerated existing trends rather than creating a wholesale landscape change, but it is difficult to separate the effects of climate and human-induced burning subsequently until the European era (Kershaw et al., 2002, p. 3). At the time of European settlement there were extensive buttongrass plains throughout south-western Tasmania. Ecologically, it is unlikely that such extensive plains would have persisted for more than about 250 to 1,000 years without human-mediated fires. Aborigines were seasonally active burning patches of land in the early 1800s and creating open country across which Europeans moved swiftly in the 1820s in the midlands. However, there is considerable anecdotal evidence for major changes in the fire regime of south-western Tasmania since the removal of the Aborigines in the 1830s resulting in major wide-ranging, landscape-scale fires in the 1890s and 1930s. Aborigines probably used low-intensity fires mainly in spring and autumn to flush out game when hunting and to create access tracks. The aim was to create a large number of small, recently burnt areas surrounded by thicker vegetation (Marsden-Smedley, 1998, pp. 1519). The slow rate of vegetation change in south-west Tasmania meant that the distribution of the majority of the current vegetation and soil types (especially peat formation) shows the result of long-term Aboriginal land-use practices. The co-existence of extensive areas of buttongrass moorland in close proximity to highly fire-sensitive rainforest and alpine heaths also supports the proposal that the Aborigines burnt the former when the wet forest communities, especially those containing coniferous species such as King Billy, Huon and pencil pines, were too wet to burn. Given the time period required for successional processes and soil formation, these communities must have co-existed for thousands of years. Therefore, the current distribution of vegetation and soils in this region should not be described as natural and a better description would be a cultural landscape (MarsdenSmedley, 1998, p. 25). A more detailed examination of the antiquity and characteristics of seasonal migration of hunter-gatherer societies in alpine regions throughout the world is required before the case for the TWWHA is absolutely confirmed. In comparative studies, like should be compared with like. The fire-effects studies have already compared similar ecosystems in New Zealand, Chatham Islands and Patagonia. However, further research is required into some aspects to allow a comprehensive construction of the case. For example, further studies into seasonal movement for resource exploitation between coastal areas, valleys and sub-alpine areas is required to fill out the pattern emerging from recent studies. For areas of similar ecosystem-based landscapes like the buttongrass moorlands and the montane grasslands, scientific evidence now points to the need for a different park-burning regime to both maintain the cultural landscape and to maintain its biodiversity. Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service Aboriginal trainees are being employed to assist in this new work and this in turn represents a restoration of cultural practice in accordance with the 1995 management plan. The impact of the new burning regime needs to be monitored regularly to check that it is achieving the desired conservation objectives. Cultural values are also increasingly being interpreted to the public at visitor centres, historic convict sites and former logging sites. Tourist numbers rose from 453,000 in 1995 to 500,600 in 1999 (Lennon et al., 2001, p. 79). Local people, the Grining family, who were displaced when the timber industry ceased, now operate one of the major tourist boat services up the Franklin River the only way access is permitted.
Conclusion
Effective management of outstanding universal values in World Heritage properties requires a continual management process that reassesses the values of the place/landscape and then adjusts on-site management to conserve these new or updated values. As the second round of periodic reporting for World Heritage properties is about to occur, the case of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area illustrates a very good example of effective values-based management.
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References
JACKSON, W. D. 1999. The Tasmanian legacy of man and fire. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Vol. 133, No. 1, pp. 114. KERSHAW, P.; CLARK, J. S.; GILL, A. M.; DCOSTA, D. M. 2002. A history of fire in Australia. In: R. Bradstock, J. Williams and M. Gill (eds.), Flammable Australia, the Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent, pp. 326. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. LENNON, J.; PEARSON, M.; MARSHALL, D.; SULLIVAN, S.; MCCONVELL, P.; NICOLLS, W.; JOHNSTON, D. 2001. Natural and Cultural Heritage. Australia State of the Environment Report, 2001 Theme Report. Canberra, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. MARSDEN-SMEDLEY, J. B. 1998. Changes in southwestern Tasmanian fire regimes since the early 1800s. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Vol. 132, pp. 1529.
Further reading
LENNON, J. Management Guidelines for World Heritage Cultural Landscapes. Report to the World Heritage Centre. Paris, UNESCO, December 2001. . Cultural Heritage Values Update of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Unpublished report to the Department of Tourism, Parks, Heritage and the Arts, Hobart, Tasmania, September 2002. THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE. Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage. Research report edited by Marta de la Torre. Los Angeles, Calif., The Getty Conservation Institute, 2002.
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This recommendation should be taken as one of the future tasks to be addressed by experts. Third, the cultural heritage evaluation criterion (vi) should be applied with more flexibility. Although a cultural landscape containing a sacred mountain is a natural property with a variety of associative cultural values, it often lacks an artificial or tangible element which can be used as evidence to prove its cultural value. In order to adequately evaluate the cultural value in a natural property in such a situation, there is currently no alternative but to apply criterion (vi). Therefore, revision of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, which is currently under way, should take account of this issue, in a manner that could amend or adjust the conditions for the criterion in question so that it could be more flexibly applied. the Nature Conservation Law or in Reserved Forests under the Forest Law, which aims to control forestry activities in an appropriate manner. These measures for natural environment protection are the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, and the local governments concerned. Through these measures, cultural landscapes in Japan are under strict protection from the standpoint of both cultural and natural heritage values, as elaborated on in the following section. The History of Natural Worship in Japan The Japanese view of nature worship which holds that deities dwell in natural objects throughout the universe has been at the foundation of religious beliefs since ancient times. Thus mountains, islands, forests, trees, ponds, swamps and other such elements of nature are considered to be sacred objects or places where deities dwell; rivers and seas are viewed as holy entrances which lead to the paradise where deities dwell. Among these sacred places, mountains have been closely associated with the world after death, and there is a belief that the soul of a dead person climbs a mountain on its way up to heaven. At the same time, mountains have been thought to be divine homes where gods of wealth and agriculture dwell, probably because they are the places closest to heaven places to which the gods could easily descend. After Buddhism was introduced to Japan from China in the sixth century, mountains came to symbolize not only the world after death but also the land of rebirth, Saiho Jodo (Western Pure Land), where devout Buddhists found salvation and were reborn. In the thirteenth century, the appearance of the Amida Buddha from behind the mountains at the deathbed of Buddhist followers became a dominant motif in religious images (Fig. 5). On the other hand, in the Shugen sect of Buddhist-Shinto asceticism, priests stay away from the secular world and retreat to mountain hermitages where they pursue strict training to acquire superhuman spiritual power. This religious practice was based upon the view of mountains as sacred places of the gods. As Japanese traditions of nature worship merged with Buddhism, more and more mountains came to be revered as objects of worship. In this way, mountains have played a significant role in the formation of a Japanese world view, characterized by unique approaches towards nature and its integration into various socio-cultural contexts. Japanese Cultural Landscape Sites of Sacred Mountains Of the sacred mountains in Japan, four regions are inscribed on the World Heritage List as cultural heritage: the Itsukushima Shinto Shrine (inscribed in 1996); Kasuga-
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Taisha and the Kasugayama Primeval Forest, part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara (inscribed in 1998), the Shrines and Temples of Nikko (inscribed in 1999); and the Sefa-utaki, included among the Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (inscribed in 2000). The forested region around the Jomon cedar trees of the Yakushima World Heritage natural site (inscribed in 1993) has features of a sacred place and could be considered to be a component of a sacred mountain. In addition, the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, and the Cultural Landscapes that Surround Them, added to the Japanese tentative list of World Heritage in 2001 (Figs. 2, 3 and 4), represent other heritage properties related to sacred mountains. Descriptions and evaluations are given below for the Itsukushima Shinto Shrine as representative of Japanese cultural heritage sites, Yakushima as representative of natural heritage sites which include cultural values related to human spirituality, and Mount Fuji which is not a World Heritage site but a representative cultural landscape site associated with religious beliefs and artistic works in Japan. Itsukushima Shinto Shrine Itsukushima Island is among the many islands in the western part of the Setonaikai (Seto Inland Sea), lying between Honshu, the Japanese mainland, and the island of Shikoku. Because of the awe-inspiring appearance of Mount Misen, which stands 530 m above sea level, the island has been worshipped by local people since ancient times. The Itsukushima Shinto shrine was constructed on the northern shore of the island in the twelfth century (Figs. 6 and 7). The shrine buildings form a distinctive landscape of their own in that the vermilion-lacquered religious structures present a spectacular view with the sea and the lush green of the sacred mountain, Mount Misen, in the background. The composition of this singular landscape can be credited to a twelfth-century political leader, Taira no Kiyomori. The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine provides a typical example of how a mountain on an island in this case became an object of worship as the dwelling place of the gods and inspired the construction of a shrine at the foot of the mountain. In an early stage of the development, the whole island including Mount Misen was revered as a sacred entity and worshipped from a distant shore. Later, after shrine buildings were constructed along the waterfront of the island, the complex came into prominence as the frontal focus of the landscape and Mount Misen came to be recognized more as an integral part of the background. Consequently, the entire area seen from the sea with the Otorii (a large shrine gate) in the foreground and the mountains in the background, resembling a progression of folding screens leading up to Mount Misen forms a unified landscape surrounding the shrine. The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine is currently inscribed under the category of Cultural Heritage as a group of buildings but not as a cultural landscape. However, the landscape formed by the shrine buildings and the natural environment including the sea in the foreground and Mount Misen in the background shows the distinctive characteristics of cultural landscapes of sacred places in Japan. Yakushima The World Heritage natural site, Yakushima, contains ancient Japanese cedar trees known as Jomonsugi, which are said to be as much as 6,000 years old. Although on Yakushima Island there were times when Japanese cedar trees were logged for forestry purposes, the woods of Jomonsugi have been left untouched as a sacred place. In this particular case, the object of worship is a forest instead of a mountain itself; however, as a closely similar example which reflects the belief that the gods exist in such oldgrowth wood it deserves due notice (Fig. 8). Not only is this property a Natural Heritage site inscribed on the World Heritage List, it also has value as a cultural landscape closely associated with local belief. Mount Fuji Mount Fuji, located at the centre of the Japanese archipelago, is a symmetrical cone-shaped volcano with a height of 3,776 m, with a perfect profile that gives it a singularly distinctive character as a mountainscape. Rising from the lowlands near Suruga Bay on the south, its peak is the highest in Japan (Fig. 9). Mount Fuji has been revered and treasured since earliest times and has inspired generations of folklore, literature, drawings, paintings and other various works of decorative art. Mount Fuji is indeed the most representative symbol of Japan; in addition, it has tremendous cultural value as a cultural landscape directly rooted in the deepest foundations of the uniqueness of Japanese culture. Geological History of Mount Fuji The history of Mount Fuji is geologically divided into three stages. The oldest part of the mountain was formed as a result of volcanic eruptions which occurred in the late Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period, when the mountain was half its present height. The second volcano began its activities at the end of the Pleistocene and grew to a height of 3,000 m, with its peak just below the present summit. After that Mount Fuji continued to erupt intermittently and discharged lava, which has accumulated mainly on the western and northern slopes resulting in the form that we see today. Records indicate that there have been more than ten instances of eruption to date, the most recent of which occurred in 1707 forming an explosion crater on the western piedmont about halfway up and giving birth to a group of lakes (known as Fuji Five Lakes) on the northern side. Mount Fuji, with its abundant rain and snow, has a wealth of water resources, with underground streams flowing through strata of lava and volcanic gravel to feed many springs as well as the five lakes. Around the base of the mountain is a treasure-trove of interesting geological fea-
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tures such as volcanic wind caves and lava tree moulds, formed when tree trunks that were engulfed and incinerated by lava left hollow spaces inside the lava. As regards vegetation, Mount Fuji has a characteristic spectrum of vertical vegetative distribution, which changes as it ascends from forests of shade trees at the bottom through grassy fields at a higher altitude to moss and lichen at the upper limits. Cultural History of Mount Fuji Mount Fuji had been a forbidden sanctuary where no one was allowed entrance until the eighth century. It was an especially awe-inspiring place because it was literally the highest place where gods descend and because it was an active volcano. People dedicated their prayers to the mountain and built a shrine, Sengen-jinja, dedicated to a volcanic god called Asama no Okami. It was not until the priests of the ascetic Shugen sect began their religious activities on this mountain that people dared go into the area. Fuji san Hongu Sengen-jinja, which is located on the south-western piedmont of Mount Fuji, dates back to the ninth century and is known for the fact that its resident priests practised strict asceticism in the southern part of the mountain. Gradually Mount Fuji became popularized and people began to climb it as an act of worship. In the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, Fujiwara Kakugyo and Murakami Mitsukiyo institutionalized climbing to worship into a religious practice called Fujiko, which spread among ordinary people. As peoples enthusiasm towards this practice grew, there appeared a group of mountain guides, the Oshi. They lived in the city of Fujiyoshida at a northern approach to Mount Fuji and organized Fujiko groups for which they provided various kinds of assistance to people living in and around Edo (present-day Tokyo), taking care of such matters as preparing money for travelling, making arrangements for ritual purification at a shrine and guiding people along the mountain trails. The climbing route is symbolically composed of three sections: the first piedmont section, covered with shrubs of Miscanthus, the second forest-covered middle section and the third section where rocks and volcanic debris dominate the landscape. The fields of Miscanthus symbolize the secular world of humans; the forested area is a transition stage between the secular and divine worlds; and the last section represents the divine world of gods or the world after death. In other words, the act of climbing Mount Fuji took on a religious meaning in which one could be purified of crimes and sins committed in the secular world by stepping into the divine world after death and doing penance in the harsh landscape. In this way many people climbed Mount Fuji under the guidance of the Oshi. This unique practice of mountain climbing, which developed on the basis of mountain worship, has survived to this day as part of the religious practice of a great number of people who visit Mount Fuji, joined by recreational climbers in the summer season. Mount Fuji as a Cultural Landscape Mount Fuji has been a source of inspiration for many works of fine art since the earliest stages of Japanese cultural history. It is a popular subject for waka poems, and many such examples can be found in Japans earliest extant poem collection, the Manyoshu. Countless drawings and paintings feature Mount Fuji, among which the thirteenth-century pictorial hand scroll depicting the bibliography of the monk Ippen is worthy of mention (Fig. 10). A series of woodblock prints created by Katsushika Hokusai in the Edo Period show thirty-six views of Mount Fuji from different perspectives (Fig. 11). These materials illustrate for those of us living in contemporary times how people living in Edo at that time held Mount Fuji as an object of worship, with a widely shared wish to climb it once in a lifetime, and how at the same time Mount Fuji was part of their daily lives, being easily visible from Edo then. As enthusiasm for worship-climbing grew, many pictorial guides called Fuji Sengen mandala were produced for use when the Oshi gave their preparatory lectures for those who intended to climb Mount Fuji for that purpose. One of the mandalas, a sixteenth-century article currently in the possession of the Fuji san Hongu Senegen-jinja, is designated as a National Important Cultural Property (Fig. 12). Mount Fuji can be said to have set the standards against which other landscapes in Japan are judged. In 1936, it was designated as a National Park and since then measures to utilize the area for recreational purposes have also been implemented. The mountain is a unique cultural landscape which demonstrates a long history of interactions between human beings and nature in Japan, seen in such manifestations as religious activities and works of art. Furthermore, it has been deeply rooted in Japanese values and attitudes towards nature in general and as such has been an indispensable element of Japanese culture for each generation. The vast Miscanthus grassland spread over the north-eastern piedmont of Mount Fuji is an example of a landscape which has been maintained over a long period of time through the involvement of farmers, who depend upon the grassland for raw materials for craftworks and roof thatching. Mount Fuji contains not only primeval forests of high natural value but also managed forests, especially at the foot of the mountain. In a way, Mount Fuji can be said to be a living cultural landscape in an organic process of evolution. Protection of Historic Monuments and Landscapes of Mount Fuji Most of the properties that characterize the cultural values of Mount Fuji are already being protected under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties of Japan. In particular, the core zone of Mount Fuji, or that portion of the mountain body above mid-altitude, is designated as a National Special Place of Scenic Beauty together with the pilgrimage routes leading to the area. The shrine buildings
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of Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen-jinja and Fuji san Hongu Sengen-jinja are designated as National Important Cultural Properties and the viewpoint, Nihondaira, located in the coastal area in the southern piedmont. is also designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty for its excellent view of Mount Fuji. In order to maintain the cultural value of these routes and buildings and carry them on to succeeding generations, conservation repair works and improvement works have been carried out. Mount Fuji is also protected as the Fuji Hakone Izu National Park, which covers the core area designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and the surrounding areas. In addition, the forested areas are placed under the protection and management of the Forest Law. Problems Although Mount Fuji and its value as a cultural landscape are under the protection of several legislative instruments, the surrounding piedmont area has been put to use for recreational purposes in the twentieth century. As a result a need has arisen to co-ordinate the interests of the local residents at the foot of the mountain in terms of the influences on their daily lives, the interests of tourists regarding recreational functions in the national park and the interests of the public at large for nature protection. In an attempt to address this challenge, the Environment Agency (reorganized into the Ministry of the Environment in 2001) reviewed policy planning for the Fuji Hakone Izu National Park from 1995 to 1996 and worked out a new management zoning plan. Among the management issues requiring attention is the problem of sewage disposal, which has become increasingly serious due to the large number of people visiting Mount Fuji in recent years, especially in summer. The Environment Agency responded to this issue in 1996 by introducing a newly developed sewage disposal system which is applicable to environmentally sensitive areas. As a result, the situation is gradually improving. The point could be made that these problems would not have existed if Mount Fuji were not a living sacred mountain attracting a great number of people as an object of worship or as an excellent sightseeing spot. In other words, the very existence of these problems can be considered to be additional evidence that Mount Fuji is a major cultural landscape of Japan. called Obasute (also known as Tagoto no Tsuki); where images of the moon reflected on the terraced rice fields have influenced and inspired many a poet for generations. The other, Shiroyone no Semmaida, is famous for its exceptional scenic beauty displayed in small patches of terraced rice fields extending along the seashore (Fig. 13). In 2000, discussions started about the appropriate ways of conserving and utilizing the cultural landscapes related to agricultural, forestry or fishery activities. These two sites of terraced rice fields were chosen to initiate the discussions.
Bibliography
Fuji san Oinaru Shizen no Kensho [Mt Fuji Verification of the Great Nature]. Tokyo, Yomiuri Shimbun Sha, 1992. GORAI, S. Yama to Shukyo Shugendo Kogi [Mountains and Religions Shugen Sect]. Tokyo, Kadokawa Shoten, 1991. HIRANO, E. ed. Fuji Sengen Shinko [Fuji Sengen Worship]. Vol. 16, Minzoku Shukyoshi Sosho. Tokyo, Yuzankaku Shuppan, 1987. HIRANO, E. Hirano et al. Musashino no Fuji [Mt Fuji Viewed from Musashino Region]. Musashino, No. 329. Tokyo, Musashino Bunka Kyokai, 1997. KAGEYAMA, H. Shintaisan [Sacred Mountains]. Tokyo, Gakuseisha, 1971. NAOKI, K. et al. Kodai Nihon no Yama to Shinko [Mountains and Religious Beliefs in Ancient Japan]. Tokyo, Gakuseisha, 1987. OUOKA, S.; OKADA, K. et al. Fuji san [Mt Fuji]. Tokyo, Shinchosha, 1985. TAKASE, S. Kodai Sangaku Shinko no Shitekikosatsu [Historical Analysis of Ancient Traditions of Mountain Worshipping]. Tokyo, Meicho Shuppan, 1989. TSUJI, Y. Fuji san no Funka Manyoshu kara Gendai made [Eruptions of Mt Fuji From the Times of Manyoshu to the Present]. Tokyo, Tsukiji Shoten, 1992. UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CENTRE. Final Report of the UNESCO Thematic Expert Meeting on Asia-Pacific Sacred Mountains. UNESCO World Heritage Centre/Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government/Wakayama Prefectural Government, 2001.
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The facade of Itsukushima Shinto Shrine from the sea, with Mt Misen, sacred mountain, in the background
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Yamakoshi Amida-zu the appearance of Amida Buddha from the back of the mountains
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A wood print work of Katsushika Hokusais Fugaku Sanjurokkei [Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji]
Mt. Fuji depicted in the Ippen Shonin E-den [The drawings of the biography of the monk Ippen]
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their own initiatives; a partnership of equals is a smart partnership. What this illustrates is that sustainable partnerships hinge on the principle of a carefully negotiated process leading to a commonly accepted position. It is a scenario that leaves no room for perceived positions: there can only be one correct position consensually arrived at in conditioning relationships. I here propose that these are the same principles that underlie and regulate sustainable cultural landscapes, particularly in Africa. This is so because, as aptly summarized by Harald Plachter and Mechtild Rssler, cultural landscapes are a reflection of the interaction between people and their natural environment over space and time. Nature in this context, is the counterpart to human society; both are dynamic forces, shaping the landscapes (Plachter and Rssler, 1995, p. 15). That indeed is a partnership par excellence, i.e. a smart partnership based on principles of symbiotic relationships, equality and equity.
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tion in habitat was mandatory between man and animals. Indeed indigenous belief systems of Africa did not assert a monopoly of the soul for the human species alone. A tree, a mountain, a river could have a soul [equally] there is also no monopoly of divine power in a single deity where Creator stands on one side and creatures on the other. In essence there is ecological racism when only Homo sapiens has a soul and other creatures are at the service of man (Mazrui, 1986, pp. 4852). The smart partnership becomes a covenant of three dialoguing in the framework of a triple heritage of humanity (cultural heritage); nature (natural heritage) and the spiritual realm (spiritual heritage). A well-defined relationship is critically important for sustainability of the cultural landscape. I suggest that optimum conditions prevail within the geometric principles of an equilateral triangle where all the angles are the same (60) and all the sides are the same length: certain norms (growing the japonica variety of rice, respecting rituals and traditions of sacrificing to the deities, respecting protective systems based on ancestral rights concepts of land ownership, passing on traditional hydraulic engineering technology and harnessing the strength of the young together with the wisdom of the elderly). These were the ingredients that saw the cultural landscape of the Philippines rice terraces inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1995 (Government of the Philippines, 1995). In 2001, the property was placed on the World Heritage List in Danger. The relevant joint IUCN/ICOMOS mission noted that the delicate balance of the smart partnership had been undermined. The introduction of pest species such as giant worms and golden snails had undermined the ecosystem; the communal and social fabric was being undermined as the young energetic labour force left to take up paid employment, etc. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2001). This illustrates that the second equilateral triangle, which underpins the first, has the following components: values; society; norms. Values: Although values are Octopan in nature (e.g. political, economic, cultural, spiritual, aesthetic), with each having varied ideals, ethics and epistemologies, the sustainability of cultural heritage hinges on identifying and recognizing the principal values individually and in combination. To do so requires an all-inclusive process involving all stakeholders, in particular the local communities, to define the values. In this way varying perspectives can be made to converge in a correct position which is consensually arrived at in conditioning relationships: an essential prerequisite for smart partnerships. Society: Society is equally Octopan and as a consequence cultural heritage is a politicized, contested social construction. This being so, it is again critically important to identify the variety of stakeholders (individual, family, local community, ethnic and religious groups, nation, state and world at large) (The Getty Conservation Institute, 2000, p. 14). The purpose is to level the playing field, establish rules of play and identify the relevant players. Norms: Norms are the third component of the inner equilateral triangle. Aptly put by Eric Edroma, African societies have contested, challenged, negotiated and finally established norms of dos and donts that restrain access and regulate use of resources. Such norms are critically important as underwriters of this triangle. Through them human beings are pledging to play by the rules of the game and respecting the other players (nature and spiritual realm). These norms, sacred controls, customary laws and traditions, taboos and pragmatic controls (mechanisms put in place to promote conservation of resources, e.g. in honey harvesting, some honey is left in the beehive to retain the colony; harvesting of medicinal plants, etc.) In summary, therefore, the extent to which sustainability is achieved in Africa (as well as in similar contexts as illus-
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This is the essence of smart partnerships and a summary of the principles enunciated above. Concomitantly, for the triangle to remain intact, there ought to be a system that underwrites the partnership, for example sacred controls, respect for customs, protocols, norms of civility, taboos, traditional knowledge and practices, etc. What this entails is that in the same orbit there is yet another inner and smaller equilateral triangle that relates to human relationships operating on smart partnership principles. In the absence of this inner triangle, the larger triangle will crumble like a pack of cards. This is so because the human dimension invariably seeks to assert a monopoly over the other partners, such as by harvesting more natural resources than is acceptable in the relationship; it is the human component that undermines the spiritual realm, through for example the forces of globalization. I will borrow from an example outside Africa (Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras) to illustrate this point. For over 2,000 years the terraced rice fields of the Ifugao survived on a dialogue involving humanitys adherence to
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trated by the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras) depends on the degree of synchronism between the outer equilateral triangle (smart partnership) of the cultural, natural and spiritual realm, on the one hand, and the inner equilateral triangle that governs human relationships (values, society and norms), on the other. While the latter inputs into the former, it is the fulcrum upon which the former revolves. There has to be convergence at one point and communication at all three points, as illustrated below. are also representative of a wider tradition and phenomenon. There are thirty-three tombs of kings of Buganda, the bulk of them (twenty-seven) in Busiro county and six in Kyoddondo county (including Kasubi). One tomb, Wamala, which predates Kasubi, is just as impressive though in a state of neglect (Munjeri, 2001, p. 16). This is not the only pillar on which this heritage stood, however; ironically it is that very political power which on a number of occasions has been its Achilles heel. In 1962, for example, Edward Mutesa II was in conflict with the British colonial rulers. In 1966 the kabaka was again in conflict with the government of Milton Obote, forcing him into exile where he died, resulting in Kasubi being directly controlled by central government. Only in 1993 was the traditional institution of kingship restored and in 1997 the Kasubi tombs were returned to the Buganda kingdom. The kabaka factor alone thus cannot account for the survival of this heritage. The cultural landscape survives on the strength of the idiom and traditions that go back to the thirteenth century. The traditions embody knowledge systems steeped in the clan system of the Baganda. Together with the kingship, they constitute the human dimension. The management system of the site is anchored in this age-old tradition. Thus custodians deployed on the site perform precisely defined traditional tasks at different levels: administrative, technical and spiritual. The nalinga is the spiritual guardian and supervisor of the site; the lubunga is the land-use co-ordinator. The physical well-being and security of the site is provided by the 24hour traditional guard at the gatehouse (bujjabukula); the clan has carried out this role for centuries. Inside the Muzibu Azaala Mpanga, which houses the tombs of the four kabakas, protection is rendered by a huge bark cloth which hides the sacred forest where the royal graves lie. Entrance to the forest is limited to widows of the kabakas, the royal family, the nalinga and the katikiro (prime minister). When I visited the site in 2000, I was impressed by the fact that the nalinga was in fact a teacher who had left her employment to assume these duties, thus proving the power of tradition. The physical well-being of the tombs is equally steeped in tradition and custom. Thatching, for example, is carried out by the Ngeye clan who are the sole keepers of knowledge of the trade and the only people allowed to climb on the roofs. A number of young Ngeye undergo training to continue the tradition. Traditional Knowledge and Skills Passed on Through Generations The Ngo clan is responsible for the production, decoration and maintenance of bark cloth. All these aspects have contributed immensely to the authenticity of the site. The natural heritage dimension is in symbiotic relationship with the cultural (human). The agricultural part of the site
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For the formula to be sustainable, the human relationships triangle has to be part of the bigger picture.
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continues to be farmed in the traditional manner. The plant species on the site continue to have both functional and cultural roles. A number of the plants are used in rituals. The continued use of bark fibres (some taken from around the site) links nature to culture. The spear grass (Cylinda impelata) used in thatching with palm fronds, as well as the soil used in plastering the floors, bring the natural dimension closer to the cultural dimension a factor captured vividly in the architecture of the Muzibu Azaala Mpanga. The fifty-two rings of palm fronds that constitute the roofing are not only aesthetically and technically masterpieces of architecture; they represent the fifty-two Buganda clans who under one roof are protected by the kings of Buganda. As the katikiro proudly informed me, Values in traditional architecture are a reflection of values in our society. The third component of the outer triangle largely explains why this cultural landscape has survived the pressures of an encroaching urban environment. Everyone fears the powerful kabakas spirits and respect for age-old tradition affords protection; yet the site exists in the middle of a growing urban area (ICOMOS, 2001, p. 82). Kasubi is a major spiritual centre for the Baganda and is the most active religious place in the kingdom. Its place as the burial ground of the four kabakas make it a major spiritual centre for the royal family and the Baganda people and important rituals are carried out there continuously. The pervading spiritual realm is not only captured in the royal tombs but also in the architecture, regalia and traditional symbols such as drums and spears. It is indeed spiritual protection that has sustained the site. All three components of the outer triangle support this cultural landscape: the human dimension, the natural dimension and the spiritual dimension. When all is said and done, the cultural landscape also sits on a firm foundation. The countrys Historical Monuments Act is the overarching instrument for protection at national level. The kabakas renders the temporal protection of the Kingdom of Buganda through the Buganda Heritage Site Committee, in addition to providing spiritual enhancement and personal commitment. At operational level the nalinga, supervisor of the site, ensures that everything runs smoothly, particularly as concerns the natural heritage. The cultural landscape is thus anchored to a strong organizational structure a model for similar situations in Africa. A closer look shows how this has been possible. In the first instance, the human dimension has tended to be anchored on a one people denominator: the Baganda. The Baganda belong to the Bantu-speaking people and date their political civilization from about the thirteenth century AD. They can trace their history to one source Kintu, the first legendary kabaka. This one peopleness has been linked to a strong kingship system revolving around the kabaka. The kabakas have added to the power of the temporal and spiritual dimension as leaders in spiritual communication with the supreme deities, as Moses-like figures. Herein lies the strength of the tombs of the Buganda kings as a unifying force linking the Baganda to the spiritual realm. The customs and traditions have thus tended to be unified and observance of them almost total. Both the educated and the non-educated generally take pride in their traditions. The turbulent history of the Buganda kingdom vis--vis central authority has equally reinforced their one peopleness; faced with what was viewed as a common adversary, they all rallied behind the wisdom and strength of the kabaka. This whole equation again ties in the spiritual dimension to the temporal; one in support of the other. The angular and linear component of the human dimension has been at best unassailable. As is also apparent, the symbiotic relationship of the spiritual dimension and the human relationship is key to the survival of both. During turbulent times, particularly when the kabaka went into exile, the tombs at Kasubi suffered as the site was controlled by central government. Ritual practices were largely forbidden and the site fell into a state of serious disrepair. When repairs were carried out, they were not in keeping with the traditional customs and knowledge systems. Such experience brought to the fore the co-relationship of the spiritual and the temporal dimensions, which needed each other, and so the spiritual angular and linear components were in harmony with the human component. So far, a situation is portrayed which can at worst lead to an isosceles triangle configuration where two sides and angles are the same, leaving the natural heritage dimension with the same angle (60) though not with the same length as the other two. I postulate that in fact the natural heritage dimension is the same as that of the spiritual and human dimensions. This is because the basis of the spiritual and human dimensions is mother earth. The tombs themselves are but the earth from which the kabakas speak. The ritual ceremonies begin and end with observance of the womb that is the earth. The fifty-two Baganda clans are also represented in natural resources palm fronds wrapped in spear grass. The 52 Rings of Palm Fronds Representing the 52 Baganda Clans: Natural Material expressing a Human and Spiritual Message This in essence brings the power of nature into a relationship with the other two sides of the triangle. That this is so is amply demonstrated by the existence of an authority that ensures sustenance of the natural heritage dimension of the cultural landscape. There is the lubunga, the land-use co-ordinator who, together with the nalinga, the spiritual guardian and supervisor of the site, ensures that the human dimension plays by the rules of the game and keeps its size of angle and length of side equal to the others. As indicated above, in African cultural landscapes, in general the three players have to be in constant dialogue. The dialogue is often made difficult, however, by the fact that the three parties have constantly varying requirements.
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This means that their negotiating positions are seldom constant or predictable. The intricate linkages of the triple heritage entail that whatever affects one angle of the equilateral triangle has the potential to change the shape of the triangle and yet the finite nature of natural resources means that all have a playing field limited to 180: one party can only advance at the expense of the other two. The propensity of Homo sapiens to advance at the expense of the other dimensions, particularly that of nature, is well captured by Dagmar Lorenz: the terms Man and Animal, rather than describing a reality, define a power hierarchy and a world order that sanctions human interests and justifies human claims to power. Whoever because of their alleged lack of nonhuman properties is relegated to the position of Animal is viewed as a source of raw material, food stuff, as objects for laboratory experiments or hunting, as wildlife or as pet (Lorenz, 1997, p. 4). Notwithstanding the rules of the covenant of the triangle that all are equal, in reality as in George Orwells satire, Animal Farm, some consider themselves to be more equal than others. This is a human frailty which accounts for the failure of smart partnerships and the consequent failure of sustainability of cultural landscapes. Issues pertaining to the outer equilateral triangle have been dealt with and its possibilities have been explored above. As indicated, the outer triangle has to be in a synchronous relationship with the inner triangle that governs the human relationship. To the extent that there is a corelationship, the total cultural landscape will ultimately survive. While the outer triangle is the ultimate field that sets the parameters for the players and defines the playing field, the long-term survival of this triangle is dependent on the dynamics that are at play in the inner triangle: the human triangle. It is in fact possible that the outer shell can seem to be intact but, because of adverse processes taking place in the inner triangle, the outer shell can crumble. In the end, whereas the three parties to the outer triangle partnership may be equal, the human factor remains in a proactive relationship vis--vis the others. Moreover, the human being is a player in both triangles, the one that relates to the natural, human (cultural) and spiritual realm and the other that relates to values, society and norms. It is the human being that in fact has brought together the three dimensions in both triangles, establishing a relationship among them. The import is that it is again the human being who will tend to determine the direction of these relationships. Even more important, the outer triangle can remain intact but may not be stationary. The degree of movement is determined by forces in the inner triangle, particularly the communication at the focal point and the extent of vibrancy at the other two points, and this has a bearing on the direction taken (positive or negative; constructive or destructive). The bottom line is the issue of sustainability. Because as a concept, and increasingly as a set of practices, sustainability is about achieving a healthy balance, it is fundamentally the relationship of human values, society and norms that will determine the viability of cultural landscapes. Returning to the case of the Kasubi tombs, if only to illustrate the above point, from time immemorial the tombs have been supported by a number of values and attributes. It has already been shown that spiritual values attached to the site have to a large extent been responsible for withstanding the adverse pressures on the cultural landscape, such as those arising from urbanization in the buffer zone. Everyone fears the powerful kabakas spirits. All consider the Kasubi tombs to be the spiritual heart of the Baganda. Other important values are economic ones. While some parts of the site are not accessible because of taboos, the Kasubi tombs do generate some funds through rents and entry fees. Indeed there has been a general expectation that the World Heritage status would increase the revenue flow and plans are under way to create a Heritage Trail linking all thirty-four tomb sites as part of a cultural tourism project. Cultural values have greatly contributed to the survival of the cultural landscape. For example, traditional events such as the new moon ceremony (given its frequency) have been selfregenerated to give form and continuity to a plethora of other customs, traditions and knowledge systems that have preserved traditional expertise and techniques such as thatching and bark-cloth making. Last but not least are the highly placed political values of Kasubi a symbol of the Buganda kingdom and a rallying point for a peoples aspirations. Thus if values are the essence of a heritages survival, there is nothing more timely today than the truth which is timeless, this is the message that comes from tradition and is relevant now because it has been relevant at all [times]. Such a message belongs to a now which has been, is and will ever be present [Ardalalan and Bakhatiar, 1975, p. vi]. If this be so, the Kasubi site will be handed down to posterity intact. The angular and linear dimension of values of the inner triangle should underpin it. A closer look at the situation on the ground, however, shows that this is not entirely the case. Symbols and symptoms of adverse forces undermining these values are everywhere carved into the Kasubi tombs landscape. Kasubi has now been encircled by both regulated and unregulated development that includes housing, commercial properties, a mosque and a school. The traditional spiritual armour of the site was dented when on the western part of the core area the mosque and a modern Islamic primary school were built, thus disregarding the norms of the site. The structures have become a focal point of simmering dispute. The issue is considered to be politically charged with the potential for triggering religious violence. Undermining the Traditional Spiritual Values: an Islamic Primary School within Kasubi The values of the site are thus seriously undermined. The reasons are all too clear. The society was by and large,
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homogeneous: Baganda valuing their traditions, history and customs. The basis of society has thus been eroded. The rapid urbanization in the areas around the cultural heritage site has brought with it some who are distant from those norms, which have been undermined. Some certainly do not cherish the spiritual heritage of the area while others see it as a pagan practice, thus undermining the very rock on which the cultural landscape stands. This means that the spiritual pillar of the outer triangle is being gradually eroded, as is that of the human dimension, albeit through a weakening inner triangle whose values, societal strengths and norms are under sustained onslaught. The living fence of bark-fibre trees around the site has suffered as an obvious target in the search for firewood, and some non-residents of Kasubi have carved out some pieces of land on the peripheral to make gardens, all of which is etching into the natural heritage. The undermining of the traditional values associated with the sacred grounds also means that the outer triangles natural heritage component is not only undermined but is treated despicably, proof of which being the dumping of waste on the site. The onslaught on the distinctive qualities of the property, largely the intangible qualities relating to beliefs, spiritually, community and identity, is in itself an attack on all the other physical qualities and attributes. The willow song in the nomination dossier sums it all up, although the boundary of the site as defined in this nomination is newly mapped and marked on the ground it is being less and less respected. Residential, Commercial and other Developments Encroaching on Kasubi If all this is disheartening, comparisons with the scenario summarized in relation to the Rice Terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras regrettably continue to be replicated at Kasubi. The vibrant young hands who are the guarantors of posterity seem to be taking the same route as their Filipino counterparts. It was observed at Kasubi that the traditional voluntary maintenance by the clans is tending to disappear as there is no means of rewarding it. Heritage in Young Hands!! If the angular and linear dimension of norms is undermined, the threat to the human dimension of the outer triangle becomes almost inevitable. Yet what this illustrates is that what can be remedied (forces at play in the inner triangle) should be remedied in order to provide the dynamic to support the outer triangle. The adverse forces in the inner triangle are not insurmountable, although the task is very arduous. The dynamics of these forces are such that the negative direction can be reversed by simple processes such as increased efforts to raise peoples consciousness; reinforcement of customary law, etc. Indeed the situation is akin to the one presented by the ICOMOS/IUCN evaluation mission to the rice terraces: there is at most ten years to reverse current trends or else the terraces will begin to lose their claim to World Heritage status. There is hope yet. This too will involve dialogue because dialogue is what cultural landscapes consist of. Elements of the dialogue include issues of boundaries; for example political and administrative boundaries may not be co-extensive with spiritual ones. Among the Shona of Zimbabwe, the pangolin (an anteater which is considered as royal or ancestral game) while physically in one chiefs administrative and political domain may well belong to a different spiritual domain. If killed, a pangolin will be consumed by the chief in whose spiritual domain it is found, though physically it may be in the other chiefs domain. This illustrates the issue of power relationships as well as the problems that often arise because state law is in an antagonistic relationship with traditional and other normative systems. Protection of cultural landscapes in Africa will depend on a legally plurastic regime which recognizes and fosters the role of traditional management systems (Mumma, 2000, p. 31).
Conclusion
The expert meeting held at La Petit Pierre in 1992 developed three categories of cultural landscape which were adopted by the World Heritage Committee and incorporated into the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Category (i): clearly defined landscapes designed and created intentionally by man. Category (ii): organically evolved landscapes developed by association with and in response to the natural environment. There are two sub-categories: relict/fossil and continuing landscape. Category (iii): associative cultural landscapes where there are powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations. There are few examples of the first category in Africa. Where they exist, as in Mali, Senegal and Sudan where acacia and baobab landscapes have been planted, they have utility value (food, medicinal , spiritual, etc.) rather than aesthetic value (Le Berre, 2000, p. 53). Categories (ii) and (iii) together with the two sub-categories have tended to merge into one mosaic. They have also demonstrated characteristics of smart partnership. However there are many cases where legislation and policies have retarded or destroyed the smart partnership arrangement. For example, because of the Group Areas Act and apartheid policies, the Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs (South Africa) was inaccessible to the indigenous peoples. In many countries in Africa, national parks and nature reserves introduced what Mazrui terms ecological apartheid, as man and nature were separated and the spiritual realm was barred. At the Great Zimbabwe National Monument, for example, because of the
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pre-independence Land Tenure Act the indigenous people could only carry out rituals clandestinely until after independence, when they could legally do so again. Where there have been no distortions, the relationships have been symbiotic, consistent with smart partnership principles. In such cases too, there is a demonstrated continuum linking relict/fossil to continuing to associative cultural landscapes. A good example of this is the Konso-Gardula cultural landscape (on Ethiopias tentative list). Dating back to the middle and late Pleistocene Epoch, the fossilized nature of the cultural landscape is reflected in the hominid remains (Homo erectus, Australopithecus boisei, Homo sapiens, etc). Later on, amazing terracing and soil conservation traditions were developed, as was urban architecture in the form of stone walled towns. These too seem to have been fossilized because traditions do not recall when the stone towns and terraces were constructed. No one can replicate the feat. The Konso explain that even their forefathers did not have the experience of building kabata terraces; to this date building of the kabata has never taken place (Bayene, 2000, pp. 98100). A similar situation exists in Nigeria where the construction of agricultural terraces and the Palace of the Hidi (chief) in the Sukur Cultural Landscape is attributed to legendary giants who were helped by Shamanic seers (Eboreime, 2000, p. 66). Interestingly, the subsequent generations defossilized the landscape by developing techniques to maintain those landscapes, thus ensuring that the fossilized phase moved into the continuing phase: a fossil cum continuing scenario. In all these cases the associative (spiritual) element made this possible. This situation invariably exists because land and spirits are in an intertwined relationship. Thus it was possible that the Konso-Gardula landscape constructed several hundred years ago [thrived because it was] the duty of the present generation to repair the stone terraces, to upkeep the stone walled towns through continuous maintenance work, observes Bayene. This in turn revitalized and galvanized society around certain values anchored in rules of primogeniture (norms). The maintenance system of the terrain and towns relied on the agegrade system because ultimately, as at the Philippines rice terraces, it was the responsibility of these strong men to upkeep the traditional stone walls and terraces (Bayene, 2000). Similarly, with respect to Sukur, Eboreime notes that the landscape is sustained by principles of gerontocracy interest in ancestral veneration (Eboreime, 2000, p. 67). Here, through the age-grade system, society is structured in such a way as to carry out various duties and responsibilities such as farming or repair works on the paved ways and the palace, demonstrating once again the virtues of the society-values-norms partnership for sociological interpretation of the relationship of norms, values and society, see Giddens (2001). In the words of Eboreime (2001), the ordering of space and its use on the cultural landscape serves as reminders and unwritten codes which prescribe obligations, roles and responsibilities for the Hidi; the elders and the youths/age grades, The Hidi is the spiritual leader. He becomes the link between the internal forces of the inner triangle and the external forces of the outer triangle. As the Hidi traverses the landscape, he is expressing a cyclical renewal of age-long ties and through his sacred palace expresses negotiated authority and power relationships. Inevitably, the fossil cum continuing landscape now survives in the third pillar, the associative. In the Konso landscape, the decorated carved wooden stelae (waka) erected on the graves of the Konso heroes (hedalayta), play a similar role to that of the Hidi. The waka are inanimate but they have a soul. The spirits of the dead heroes represented in the waka are responsible for welding society together and age-old ties are ensured and reinforced in waka ceremonies and rituals which transfer power from the retiring generation to the younger generation, observes Bayene. The spiritual node now links man to nature (stones, earth, i.e. building method) in an external triangular relationship with the spiritual realm being part of it. To date, all the African cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List demonstrate the foregoing characteristics: Sukur (Nigeria), Tsodilo (Botswana), Kasubi (Uganda), Royal Hill of Ambohimanga (Madagascar). The same observation can be made of some of the sites on the tentative list, Matopo Hills (Zimbabwe), Ekhor and OsunOsogbo (Nigeria), La Route des Esclaves (Benin), Ziwa (Zimbabwe), the sacred Mikenja kayas, (Kenya, etc.). Some sites on the World Heritage List, while appearing as cultural or natural heritage sites, in fact demonstrate the same scenarios. Mount Kenya National Park is the vox populi of Kenya and its spiritual dimension is illustrated in the late President Jomo Kenyattas book, Facing Mount Kenya. While on a mission to Malawi in 2002, I was informed that, to the indigenous population, the Lake Malawi National Park World Heritage site was a spiritual icon. Spirits were said to dwell in such features as the Mwalawamphini geological feature. The same can be said of the Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls World Heritage site where Kumirai et al. (2001) note that the Tonga on both sides of the Zambezi River and the Nambya people on the Zimbabwe side perceive the waterfalls and the rainforest differently (from the authorities). The spirits of the Zambezi River spoke to these indigenous peoples through thunder and provided people with water, fish and other resources in a demonstrable smart partnership arrangement. The same can be said of Great Zimbabwe, Mount Kilimanjaro, etc. What this amply demonstrates is that smart partnership should indeed anchor the cultural landscape sites of Africa if these landscapes are to survive. It also underscores the need to revisit those cultural, natural and mixed sites nominated to the World Heritage List prior to the adoption of the cultural landscape category so as to give them the missing link. In the last analysis, African pantheism with its principles of equity and equality offers the best hope for
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African cultural landscapes. This is because they are steeped in African cosmology where the world of the living and the dead is but one: they have a soul and so do animals, trees, mountains and rivers. Ecosystems and ethnosystems are intrinsically linked through the spiritual umbilical cord. The totality of African Heads of State have adopted this approach in order to make the development of Africa a reality. Article 15 of NEPAD is explicit: Africa has a major role to play in maintaining the strong links between human beings and the natural world. The open uninhabited spaces, the flora and fauna and the diverse animal species unique to Africa offer an opportunity for humanity to maintain its links with nature. KUMIRAI, A.; MURINGANIZA, J.; MUNYIKWA, D. 2001. Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya) World Heritage site (Zambia and Zimbabwe): issues and values. In: G. Saouma-Forero (ed.), Authenticy and Integrity in an African Context. Expert meeting, Great Zimbabwe 2629 May 2000. Paris, UNESCO. LE BERRE, M. 2000. La genese des paysages culturels africains. In: M. Rssler and G. Saouma-Forero, The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 914 March 1999. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. LORENZ, D. 1997. (Rsums): Man and Animal: the discourse of exclusion and genocide and some of its critics. Kafka, Kolma, Canetti. International symposium, 2326 June 1997. Formes et dynamiques de lexclusion dans les socits contemporaines: injustice et discrimination. Paris, UNESCO. MATSUURA, K. 2002. Africa in UNESCOS Mirror. Paris, UNESCO. MAZRUI, A. A. 1986. The Africans: A Triple Heritage. Boston, Mass., Little, Brown & Co. MUMMA, A. 2000. Legal aspects of cultural landscape protection in Africa. In: M. Rssler and G. SaoumaForero, The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 914 March 1999. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. MUNJERI, D. 2001a. Report on Evaluation Mission to the Tombs of Buganda Kings of Kasubi (Uganda). Harare. . 2001b. The notions of integrity and authenticity: the emerging themes in Africa. In: G. Saouma-Forero (ed.), Authenticy and Integrity in an African Context. Expert meeting, Great Zimbabwe 2629 May 2000. Paris, UNESCO. NEPAD. 2001. The New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) paper. See www.mapstrategy.com PLACHTER, H.; RSSLER, M. 1995. Cultural landscape: reconnecting culture and nature. In: B. von Droste et al. (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag. RSSLER, M.; SAOUMA-FORERO, G. (eds.). 2000. The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 911 March 1999. Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre. THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE. 2000. Values and Heritage. Conservation research report. Los Angeles, Calif., The Getty Conservation Institute.
References
ARDALALAN, N.; BAKHATIAR, L. 1975. The Sense of Unity: the Sufi Traditions in Persian Architecture. Chicago, Chicago University Press. BAYENE, Y. 2000. Konso-Gardula: an archaeological site and cultural landscape witness of a living culture in African cultural landscapes. In: M. Rssler and G. Saouma-Forero, The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 914 March 1999. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. EBOREIME, J. 2000. The Sukur cultural landscape. In: M. Rssler and G. Saouma-Forero, The World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes in Africa. Expert meeting Tiwi, Kenya, 914 March 1999. Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. . 2001. The Sukur and Benin cultural landscapes as case studies on current issues of authenticity and integrity. In: G. Saouma-Forero (ed.), Authenticy and Integrity in an African Context. Expert meeting, Great Zimbabwe 2629 May 2000. Paris, UNESCO. GIDDENS, A. 2001. Sociology. 4th ed. Cambridge (UK), Polity Press. GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES. 1995. Nomination dossier for World Heritage List: Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras in Ifugao Province, Cordilleras Region Luzon Island. ICOMOS. 2001. The Royal Tombs of Kasubi. In: Evaluations of Cultural Properties. Paris, World Heritage Committee/International Council on Monuments and Sites. (WHC-01/CONF.08/INF.11.)
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THE NOTION OF INTEGRITY FOR NATURAL AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPES. In: G. Saouma-Forero (ed.), Authenticy and Integrity in an African Context. Expert meeting, Great Zimbabwe 2629 May 2000. Paris, UNESCO. UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CENTRE. 2001. Report of the ICOMOS/ICUN Reactive Monitoring Mission on the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras. Paris, UNESCO. [WHC-01/CONF.207/INF.5.] VILLALON, F. 1995. The cultural landscape of the rice terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras. In: B. von Droste et al. (eds.), Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag. VON DROSTE, B.; PLACHTER, H.; RSSLER, M. (eds.). 1995. Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value. Components of a Global Strategy. Jena, Fischer Verlag. WSSD. 2002. World Summit on Sustainable Development: Development Plan. Draft text, 4 September 2002.
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Rice Terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras Nomination dossier, 1995 Rice Terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras Nomination dossier, 1995
An embodiment of the two-level scenarios: the larger Nature, man and spirit (symbolised by the elderly man who carries out rituals and part of his tools of trade, the ceremonial spear) at one with smaller scenario of values/society/norms 4
7
Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi Nomination dossier, 2001
8 The 52 rings of palm fronds representing the 52 Baganda clans: natural material expressing a human and spiritual message In the foreground the City of Kampala encroaching on Kasubi tombs in the background
Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi Nomination dossier, 2001
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Palace of the Hidi The infrastructure of the Palace of the Hidi complex, built from quarried granite blocks of different shapes and sizes, is about 400 sq. m in area and about 34 m in height. It comprises seventeen gateways, constructed of massive granite laid out to control and regulate social, political and spiritual movements within and without the palace complex. The majority of the granite used in the construction of this feat of indigenous engineering is found in situ. The Sukur people regard the Hidis palace as an ancient and sacred site whose construction is attributed to superhuman agents. The monoliths of the first gate is named after two legendary giants, Fula and Dere, who were also said to have constructed the paved passages and stone fences. The palace complex is both a residential and a socio-spiritual-political landscape in the way in which the house is used. It is a spatial and symbolic statement of authority and power relations as well as a reminder of the past events that have relevance for present-day practices and beliefs. A section of the palace is today abandoned and cannot be rebuilt because it was the dwelling place of a certain Hidi who died a violent death, having either committed suicide or been murdered in a spate of raids carried out by one Haman Yaji, a Muslim zealot and crusader who killed a total of sixty-six Sukur people, including seventeen children, in failed attempts to Islamize the Sukur by force. Such a holocaust is too much to be forgotten; hence the deliberate preservation of this section of the palace in the cultural memory of the people visualized in the form of ruins. This episode is further re-enacted in myths, songs and rituals during the periodic festivals. Paved Ways Paved walkways form the umbilical cord between the lowland plains and the hills leading to the plateau wherein the Hidi dwells. They are constructed on the steep hillside sections presumably to minimize erosion and facilitate climbing and horse riding. They are about 57 m wide. The paved ways now constitute heritage trails, allowing for the exploration of farming terraces, graves, shrines, tombs, granaries, iron furnaces, unique cattle pens, vernacular architectural forms, ceramic altars, flora and fauna as well as stone gates. For the Sukur, all these associative features of the landscape constitute living phenomena and are part and parcel of a continuing heritage that binds the living with the dead in time and space The Domesticated Landscape Thus, as one walks from the plains to the hills, on the paved ways, a scenic beauty of farm terraces presents itself as parkland typical of the traditional Mandara hill dwellers style, similar to the Nyanga terraces of Zimbabwe. The Nyanga terraces are, however, in a state of ruin having been abandoned centuries ago. The Sukur terraces embrace other spiritual features such as festival grounds, burial mounds, gates and entrances, smelting furnaces, ritual trees and shrines; all constituting a cultural map with cords that link the living with the dead and the past with the present in the continuity of tradition and the endurance of ethnic identity which are still relevant to the larger Nigerian social and political landscape. Vernacular architectural forms of dry stones, daub domes, sunken bull pens, granaries and threshing floors characterize the Sukur Cultural Landscape from the plains to the hills. Built-in conical stone wells for cattle are constructed within the lower basement of homesteads for the fattening of sheep and bulls. Cattle are capital goods used as gifts for marriage exchanges as well as prestige items for the individual and the family. The Sukur Cultural Landscape embodies rich and unique agricultural facilities. Community and household threshing floors, granaries, sheep and goat corrals provide clues to community cohesiveness, the viability of the household and the interdependence between the domesticated and undomesticated landscape, as well as expressions of the unbroken relationship between the hill dwellers and the lowland people. Today, the present Hidi of the Sukur Kingdom, who is the spiritual leader of people resident on the top of the plateau, is a blood brother to the district head, resident in the plains, who is mainly in charge of secular affairs. Given this relationship, it is easy to understand why the whole of the Sukur Kingdom is still an integral part of a total cultural landscape. From bottom to top, the landscape is characterized by agricultural terraces, which are living testimonies to the continuity of farming tradition going back over centuries of acquired indigenous technological knowledge. The abundance of iron, stones, slags and sludges helps to emphasize the industrial technological base of the Sukur Cultural Landscape. Taken with the terraces and shrines, they are a reminder that the landscape is a living model of sustainable use of land and natural resources within the context of cultural and community identities kept active by the age-grade system and the SCDA, which perceives devolvement within the framework of ethnic and cultural identities. It was against this background that in 1999 the Sukur Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the World Heritage List under cultural criteria (iii), (v) and (vi) as a model of a continuing landscape with associative, powerful and religious values, kept alive over the centuries through customary law and practices.
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The Challenge
ICOMOS recommended the adoption of a community-driven cultural and tourism planning strategy that would generate revenue to be reinvested in the management of the natural and cultural resources of the Sukur Cultural Landscape. The ICOMOS recommendation has been a major challenge for the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), as the standard-bearers of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in Nigeria. The relative inaccessibility of the site has ironically helped in its conservation. Only a few scholars and adventure-loving military officers visit the site. The Adamawa State Government, whose governor was present at the inscription of Sukur in Marrakesh (Morocco, 1999) is keen on introducing niche/cultural tourism. He has heeded the advice of the NCMM, which advocates an integrated rural development strategy that would accommodate an ecotourism plan. This strategy is being articulated within the poverty alleviation programme of the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria. In the interim, the NCMM is working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the state and local government as well as the SCDA in implementing community-based projects such as the installation of san latrines, water boreholes, and the training of Female Birth Attendants in order to reduce high maternal and infantile mortality rates. The NCMM, with the active involvement of the community-based associations, has completed a Stone House with san latrines to serve as an Information Centre and a future ticketing office. Postcards and brochures have been produced and handed over to the SCDA for sale and educational purposes in local schools. Craft development and standardization are viable economic ventures that need to be encouraged within the current Poverty Alleviation measures of the government. This would keep the indigenous technological expertise alive and marketable. This integrated management strategy for the Sukur Cultural Landscape is being worked out between the NCMM, local and state governments and under the aegis of the UNDP. The working document recognizes the strengths of a holistic conservation strategy which recognizes the following: customary law and practices; biodiversity; technological expertise (indigenous knowledge); partnerships between the identified groups and stakeholders; cultural tourism development. The greatest asset is the community solidarity of the Sukur people who perceive of development not in terms of their neighbours but in terms of their prized uniqueness and cultural differences. Their access to the prestigious World Heritage List in 1999 is seen by friends and foes of the Sukur people as a celebration of their resilience and solidarity. Neighbouring peoples are now reawakening and reinventing their dormant culture, custom and practices!
Bibliography
BARTH, H. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 2, p. 100. 3 vols (1857). London, Frank Cass, 1995. DAVID, N.; STENER, J. Constructing a Historical Ethnography of Sukur II. Parts I and II, Nigerian Heritage. Lagos, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, 1995/1996. EBOREIME, J. Language and culture resources management within the context of pluralism: the Nigeria situation. In: Ethnicity in Africa: Its Roots, Meaning and Implications. Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 1996. GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA. Nomination Dossier of Sukur Cultural Landscape (C938). Federal Government of Nigeria, 1998. KIRK-GREEN, A. H. M. The Kingdom of Sukur, A Northern Nigeria Ichabod. Nigeria Field, No. 25, 1960, pp. 6796. KULP, H. S. Note taken on tour in Madagali District. June 1422, File Yolaprof, J21, National Archives, Kaduna, 1935. NETTING, R. McC. Hill Farmers of Nigeria. Intensive Hill Agriculture, Chapter 3, pp. 55107. Washington, DC, University of Washington Press, 1968.
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To shed light upon the Banks comparative advantage in this context, some main factors (beside having the funds) can be pointed out: The Bank, through its mode of working at the national level, has a comparative advantage when it comes to contributing to mainstreaming heritage work into overall national plans and development efforts. By mainstreaming we mean that heritage work should be integrated into other activities and be part of broader development goals and strategies at the national level. Conservation of cultural landscapes could be integrated into broader development strategies as a resource to strengthen a number of sectors already supported by the Bank, such as education, forestry, tourism, agricultural development, etc. The Bank could support analyses of the economic values of cultural landscapes, both as a direct and an indirect resource to combat poverty. The heritage authorities are, for their part, challenged to improve partnership relations and co-ordination of their priorities in their respective countries and at the national level. This in its turn requires clear objectives, policies and strategies for heritage development in each country. In the long run, these requirements are likely to be of great importance to most future undertakings whether they are to satisfy the Bank or for other purposes. If there is a wish and a will for deeper engagement in cooperation with the World Bank on this issue, it would be natural to request the Bank to finance the process by which a fruitful dialogue, relevant for all parties, could be developed or improved. The individual country and site would, no doubt, benefit from and be strengthened by regional co-operation in such a process. The way ahead is to create good arenas for dialogue, and to be able to show how ongoing projects provide good models.
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A classical division of concepts distinguishing and therefore separating culture, the work of man, and landscape, the vision of nature, has predominated for a long time. The reconciliation of the two concepts is the fruit of the evolution of ideas and the association of scientific disciplines. On the one hand, cultural manifestations (monumental or works of art) are no longer considered as isolated heritage. They are works in context with, and valorized by, the concept of architectural or monumental ensembles or cultural sites within spatial boundaries, where human intervention is evident, but where some natural elements considered to be accessories serving as decoration, are integrated. This is the concept of the jewel in its casket. Landscapes, on the other hand, being an expression of the perception of space by humanity, will reveal themselves not only in and through artificial landscapes constructed by man, such as parks and historical gardens, but also in the so-called natural landscapes where it is quickly seen that in reality they are designed and worked by man. Cultural works are thus introduced into the landscape and the landscape reflects human activity, be it monumental or ordinary. One can then speak of cultural landscapes in both the rural and urban environment, the expression urban cultural landscape designating constructions and monuments, and the expression rural cultural landscapes which integrates agricultural practices and popular traditions. In reality, the landscape is both intrinsically natural and also cultural to whoever is contemplating it. Landscapes only exist because of human perception which is the reflection of ones culture. One might say: to each his own landscape. On these grounds, the landscape is both the reflection of a local culture because it conveys images of past and present activities of a place, and the reflection of the culture of the person who is looking at it; whether they be a local peasant, a foreign tourist or a commercial traveller, they will not have the same perception of a given space. What place does the legal expert have in this debate? The recognition of the legal status of landscape is fairly recent. It is the result of legislators desire to control human activities that would destroy a beautiful landscape. It is first and foremost an aesthetic concern which will justify public intervention.1 One protects only beautiful landscapes, because only they deserve consideration and because the word landscape is indicative of only positive values. There is no reason for interest in landscapes which are not beautiful. This is why legislators, even if they do not formally designate the protection of outstanding
landscapes, implicitly consider the landscape as a value to be protected. This applies solely to natural areas. It is interesting to note that in Europe the first legal reference to landscape concerns the forests and the introduction into the rural environment of hydroelectric equipment. The oldest legal reference to landscapes, with a law in 1805 on the division of shared forests, can be found in Denmark. In France, in 1906, a text on the distribution of energy takes into account the protection of landscapes. Also in Switzerland, the 1916 law on hydraulic energy foresees that factories shall not spoil, or shall spoil as little as possible the landscape. In Belgium, there is a 1911 law for the conservation of the beauty of landscapes. In Spain, landscape appears for the first time in a 1916 law on national parks dealing with outstanding national landscapes. With the entrance of the environment into public policies in the 1970s, the landscape became an element or a component of the environment. This latter would first of all concern easily identifiable physical elements: water, air, ground, fauna and flora, then more complex elements: biological diversity or biological balance and landscape that would be closely associated with the concept of the site, which simply defines an identified and delimited space. Landscape is thus directly linked to nature as an intrinsic part of biological diversity. Landscape is therefore a cultural vision of nature and its components are flora, fauna, forests, biodiversity. It is significant that the great plan for European natural heritage adopted in 1995 in Sofia by the Ministers of Environment of fifty-five European countries and elaborated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Council of Europe is entitled PanEuropean Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy. Although focusing on the biodiversity of landscapes, this international programme based on natural aspects, nevertheless cannot ignore the cultural aspect. Indeed, in field of action No. 4 of the Strategy devoted to the conservation of landscapes, it is clearly mentioned that landscapes are also a cultural and geological heritage and that they constitute a unique mosaic of cultural, natural and geological characteristics. From the moment that landscapes are the subject of more or less exhibited public policies, as well as an official element of environmental policies, the law, as social regulator,
1. J. Makowiak, Aesthetics and the Law, Thesis, University of Limoges, France, 2001.
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must take them into account. Being a crossroad concept with overlapping natural and cultural elements, the landscape, having become an object of law, will be implicated in all types of legislative issues concerning environment, urbanism, national development, culture and agriculture. It will therefore be very difficult to have a specific law solely devoted to the landscape. The landscape laws are in fact the laws entitled protection of nature and landscapes (Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia). The 1993 French law on landscapes introduces the landscape in diverse sector-based legislation. The landscape is, like the environment, a transversal concept which concerns several types of space and therefore requires very close integration into all other policies. It is these developments and remarks that the European Landscape Convention (Florence, 20 October 2000) wishes to convey.2 Looking at this Convention, let us first consider the legal concept of cultural landscape, and then the implication of legal systems and their field of action with regard to cultural landscapes.
Thus, the World Heritage Committee gradually developed the idea of the recognition, under the Convention, of sites that would be officially qualified as cultural landscapes legally linked to Article 1, last paragraph, of the Convention. After much discussion, the 16th session of the World Heritage Committee in Santa Fe (1992) adopted the new Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention and introduced a new category of cultural landscapes. The first landscape to be inscribed on the World Heritage List as a cultural landscape was the Tongariro National Park (New Zealand) in 1993. The new concept of cultural landscapes is divided into three categories: (i) the landscape created intentionally by man, comprising garden and parkland landscapes constructed for aesthetic reasons; (ii) the organically evolved landscape resulting from an initial social, economic, administrative and/or religious imperative. It can be relict (fossil) or continuing (living). (iii) the associative landscape justified by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element. As set out in paragraph 42 of the Guidelines, the existence of the cultural landscape category should not exclude the inscription of sites of outstanding importance in relation to both the natural and cultural criteria. Since then, several sites have been inscribed as cultural landscapes (Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras in 1995, Sintra in Portugal in 1995, Pyrnes - Mont Perdu in France/Spain in 19971999, Costiera Amalfitana in Italy in 1997, etc.) In any case, cultural landscapes recognized as such and inscribed on the World Heritage List can only be landscapes having an outstanding universal value. This limits the legal field of application of the UNESCO Convention as concerns landscapes. Beyond the framework of the application of the Convention concerning the protection of World Heritage, it appears difficult to integrate the concept of landscape with the idea of culture. In fact, in two recommendations of the General Conference of UNESCO concerning cultural heritage, the actual concept of landscape is never raised. Such is the Recommendation of 15 November 1989 on the safeguarding of traditional and popular culture, which only vaguely mentions the types of presentation of traditional and popular cultures in the sites, while cultural
2. R. Priore, The European Landscape Convention, European Review of Environmental Law, No. 4, 2000; M. Prieur, The European Protection of Landscapes, Contribution to the Birth of a Convention, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Economie et sociologie rurale, No. 16, December 1999.
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landscapes capture more attention because they are steeped in culture and popular practices. With regard to UNESCOs Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity of 3 November 2001, although it rightly proclaims cultural diversity as a common heritage of humanity, it makes no reference to landscape as a representative and visual element of cultural diversity through the diversity of landscapes and biological diversity. The divisions between nature and culture still remain resistant. IUCN During the IUCN Conference on Parks and Protected Areas in 1992, the integration by UNESCO of landscapes into the categories of World Heritage was desired. In its 1994 publication, Parks for Life: Action for Protected Areas in Europe of 1994, IUCN invited the elaboration of a convention on rural landscapes of Europe. Among the six major categories for IUCNs protected areas, Category V covers protected landscapes and seascapes. They are defined as follows:
Area of land, with coast and sea as appropriate, where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant aesthetic, ecological and/or cultural value, and often with high biological diversity. Safeguarding the integrity of this traditional interaction is vital to the protection, maintenance and evolution of such an area.
tion, the major aim of which is the protection of rural architectural heritage, thus associates landscapes as a component of this heritage. Recommendation No. R(95)9 of 11 September 1995 of the Committee of Ministers is concerned with the conservation of cultural sites integrated with landscape policies. It is the most successful instrument for the integration of landscapes into the cultural sector. It is based on the inseparable nature of the cultural and natural elements comprising the landscape of Europe and proposes instruments aiming at the conservation and the controlled evolution of cultural sites in the framework of global landscape policy. The objective is to develop strategies to integrate the control of landscape development and the conservation of cultural sites within the framework of a global policy for all landscapes by establishing a uniform protection of cultural, aesthetic, ecological, economic and social interests relating to the territory concerned. It is interesting to note the definitions provided in this non-binding document:
Landscape: formal expression of the numerous relationships existing in a given period between the individual or a society and a topographical defined territory, the appearance of which is the result of the action, over time, of natural and human factors and of a combination of both.
It may be seen from the above that landscapes are very necessarily the junction of natural and cultural elements and that, in the circumstances, to speak of cultural landscapes might appear redundant because all landscapes, even natural ones, are at the same time also cultural. It is in fact the physical dominant which can alone qualify a given landscape according to whether the fruits of humanity or fruits of nature are more in evidence. Council of Europe The Council of Europe is as much concerned with natural heritage as cultural heritage. Even before the adoption of the European Landscape Convention, it had linked the cultural factors to the landscape element through two important recommendations and two international conventions. Recommendation No. R(89)6 of the Committee of Ministers of 13 April 1989 relating to the protection and presentation of rural architectural heritage is based on the established fact that the evolution of agricultural production and the social changes that result threaten the traditional rural architecture and the associated landscape. It is appropriate therefore to safeguard the collective memory of rural Europe represented by this architecture, however humble, by organizing the safeguarding of built heritage in the planning process, territorial development and protection of the environment. Sufficient control of land-use should limit the phenomenon of irremediable degradation in the equilibrium of the landscape. This recommenda-
Landscape is taken to have a threefold cultural dimension, considering that: it is defined and characterized by the way in which a given territory is perceived by an individual or community; it testifies to the past and present relationships between individuals and their environment; it helps to mould local cultures, sensitivities, practices, beliefs and traditions.
Cultural landscape areas: specific topographically delimited parts of the landscape, formed by various combinations of human and natural agencies, which illustrate the evolution of human society, its settlement and character in time and space, and which have acquired socially and culturally recognized values at various territorial levels, because of the presence of physical remains reflecting past land-use and activities, skills or distinctive traditions, or depiction in literary and artistic works, or the fact that historic events took place there.
The two Council of Europe conventions, other than the European Landscape Convention, that have a link with cultural landscapes, are the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe, 1985 (Granada Convention) and the European Convention on the Protection of Archaeological Heritage (revised in 1992) (Malta Convention). If the Architectural Heritage Convention does not clearly mention landscapes, it at least aims, in Article 1, at definitions of architectural ensembles and sites. These latter are combined works of man and nature, partially built upon and sufficiently distinctive and homogeneous to be topographically definable and are of
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conspicuous historical, archaeological, artistic, scientific, social or technical interest. The explanatory report evokes landscape areas in relation to sites. It may be noted that the field of application of the Architectural Heritage Convention for sites or cultural landscapes is not linked exclusively to the recognition of an outstanding characteristic, as for monuments and architectural ensembles, but calls for an area with a sufficiently characteristic and homogeneous character which nevertheless should be outstanding. When Article 7 of the Convention seeks to improve the environment of the surrounding monuments and within groups of buildings and sites, it is aiming at the urban and rural life, which is inseparable from the landscape. The Convention for the Protection of Archaeological Heritage, without mention of the landscape, aims in its Article 1 at the structures, constructions, groups of buildings, developed sites, moveable objects, monuments of other kinds, as well as their context, whether situated on land or under water. Article 5 of the Convention foresees the integrated conservation of archaeological heritage and seeks to reconcile and combine the respective requirements of archaeology and development plans. This concerns urbanism and diverse works in the protected sites. The explanatory report directly refers to work which must not alter the landscape. Archaeological sites are, of course, at the forefront of cultural landscapes in transmitting the memory of society by means of the memory of an area. The professional network created in 1999 under the name of European Archaeological Council (Europae Archeologiae Consilium) devoted its second symposium in March 2001, in Strasbourg, to cultural landscapes and sustainable development. In its strategy, this organization underlines the importance of the historical and archaeological dimension of landscapes and demands that the law take due consideration of this.3 In National Law Rarely does national law venture a definition of landscape. Most often the term is simply used with no explanation of the meaning of the concept, its use depending on whichever administration is concerned. The Ministry of the Environment will speak of natural landscape, the Ministry of Agriculture of rural landscape, the Ministry of Town Planning of urban landscape, and the Ministry of Culture of cultural landscape. However, several definitions exist. The 1992 Law of the Czech Republic defines landscape as a part of the surface of the earth with specific characteristics, and composed of a complex group of integrated ecosystems and elements of civilization. In Portugal, a landscape to be protected is an area within the natural territory, semi-natural or humanized, which is the result of harmonious interaction between humankind and nature and with significant aesthetic or natural value (Article 9, Decree No. 19/93). In Belgium, the Wallon Code for territorial development and
town planning defines a site in Article 345-5-C as: any work of nature or any combined work of humankind and nature consisting of an area that is sufficiently characteristic and homogeneous to be the object of a geographical delimitation. For Hungary, a landscape is a complex territorial unity determined by the interaction between nature and society. It presents natural resources and socio-economic conditions, and at the same time has high visual and aesthetic value. Very exceptionally, certain countries such as Sweden only take into consideration the natural and rural landscape, to the exclusion of towns. In the European Landscape Convention The European Landscape Convention gives a more general and abstract definition of landscape: landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. This definition that, a priori, does not attribute particular value to landscape (landscape exists without being qualified as remarkable or aesthetic), takes into account the notion that landscapes evolve with time, under the effect of natural forces and the action of human beings. It also emphasizes the idea that the landscape is a complete entity, in which the natural and cultural elements are considered simultaneously. To define more completely the Conventions field of territorial application, Article 2 indicates that it applies to natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas. The landscape in question can be land as well as water inland water (lakes, ponds) as well as marine areas (coastal, territorial seas). The originality of the Convention lies in its application to ordinary landscapes as well as to outstanding landscapes, because they are all important for the quality of life of the populations. It even applies to degraded landscapes, inasmuch as they require urgent intervention in order to restore them. Is the category of cultural landscapes missing? Surely not, because very often the cultural aspect of the landscape is directly mentioned. As explained in the preparatory report of the non-legal version of the draft Convention, landscapes enable recognition of cultural values because they testify to the uses and skills associated with nature or urban composition that societies have implemented, as well as to part of the local history, and have often sparked peoples imagination over the millenniums. They contribute to feelings of cultural identity, of belonging and continuity and to the collective memory. They have inspired storytellers, writers, painters and other artists and have permeated the culture and souls of peoples. They have an important place in traditions and customs, and often a highly symbolic value, even for those who have
3. See G. Fairclough and S. Rippon, Europes Cultural Landscape: Archaeologists and the Management of Change, Council of Europe/English Heritage, 2002.
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never seen them (Report of Pierre Hitier, 5 May 1997, CG(4)6 Part II). The Preamble to the European Landscape Convention states that landscape has an important public interest role in the cultural field, and contributing as it does to the development of local cultures, it is a basic component of the cultural and natural heritage. In the body of the Convention, Article 5a invokes states to recognize landscapes in law as an expression of the diversity of peoples shared cultural and natural heritage. Finally, Article 5d makes an appeal to integrate landscape into cultural and other policies. If the Convention makes no distinction between the cultural and the natural heritage, it is because it truly considers that they are inseparable and closely interlinked. The institutional proof of this reality is found in the organization of the implementation of the Convention which has been entrusted to two expert committees of the Council of Europe, which meet with this mandate: the Committee on Biological and Landscape Diversity (CO-DBP), and the Cultural Heritage Committee (CO-PAR).
cultural landscapes are also retained. Inevitably, a classification with categories and criteria will be necessary. Thus, in the field of archaeology or architecture, most of the legislation attempts to identify only the monuments and resources with specific characteristics. A selection is made. Others, more uncommon, offer total and automatic legal protection for all heritage, even minor. Therefore, the inventory should be total and more complete. The same applies to landscapes. To date, the landscape inventories only included those landscapes likely to be listed for their outstanding characteristics. Indeed, Article 6C calls upon the states to identify all landscapes. This important work of inventorying the landscapes provides insight into the specific character of the different areas, each having its own combination of natural and cultural elements. Modern techniques of computerized topography and geographical information systems are used, and also at the urban level, to reveal the special characteristics of a landscape. This work is necessarily carried out by professionals in different fields, but it should not only remain the work of experts. The Convention states that it must be done in close liaison with the local populations and other persons concerned. This inventory work is completed by a delicate work of qualification that must not be confused with any classification. Then, the collective determination of what the Convention calls the objectives of landscape quality will allow the decisionmakers to adopt concrete measures for either protection, management, or development, or a combination thereof, with all the facts in hand. Instruments for Protection and Management Classification in protected areas is the most effective conservation procedure, either through the protective mechanisms of environmental law (parks or natural reserves), or through the instruments of cultural heritage law (zoning around listed monuments). In all cases this concerns a restriction of property rights, the authorization of which must be based on solid legal grounds. Protection will take the form of a public service or the control of all activity affecting the site. The insertion of the landscape into development and town planning programmes and plans is the most appropriate form. This allows the determination of eventual landscape areas and makes it obligatory for the presence of a wellidentified landscape to be taken into consideration. The European Landscape Convention calls upon the states to integrate landscape into the different sector-based policies. Its integration into planning is the most effective. It is then at the level of individual authorizations that landscape must be taken into account. This can be done, for larger projects, thanks to an environmental impact study. The European Directive of 27 June 1985 states that the impact studies must examine the direct and indirect effects of a project on the environment, therefore the landscape and consequently the cultural landscape. Thus, the 1991
The Legal Framework of Cultural Landscapes As are all landscapes, cultural landscapes are threatened with destruction or degradation resulting as much from human actions as from natural phenomena. All legal regimes must therefore set up protective mechanisms within, or in addition to, management and maintenance mechanisms. A priori, only protection requirements necessitate a constraining legal arsenal. Management and maintenance are carried out more spontaneously, but can necessitate incitement and support. But these protection and management instruments cannot be considered in isolation. They call for preliminary procedures and accompanying or follow-up procedures such as inventories and identification, as well as information and participatory procedures. Inventories and Identification In order to protect, one must first be informed. This is why all the various international conventions impose inventory mechanisms. This implies surveys with updates and a special methodology. The minimal indexing form for data pertaining to the Architectural Heritage of the Council of Europe (Recommendation No. R(95)3) proposes a method. It indicates the information necessary to index, organize and classify the data to be included in an inventory. It is here that additional information on the site and the landscape will usefully complete the inventory. However, this necessitates a multidisciplinary team with landscape specialists, and is still too rarely foreseen. Of course the inventory and its organization are conditioned by the policy being followed. The methods and procedures will not be the same if only the outstanding and remarkable cultural landscapes are retained, or if the traditional and ordinary
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Environment Law of Malta states that account must be taken of landscape and cultural heritage. In Italy, the Decree of 27 December 1988 requires that the morphological and cultural aspects of landscape, the identity of the human community concerned and the cultural links be taken into account. It does not appear that the cultural landscape is significantly taken into consideration beyond the cases where the landscape is already listed and therefore already protected. For this reason, a methodology must be set up to control the decisions not requiring an impact study, which are the majority, and which affect insidiously the unprotected landscape. There is always the general possibility of refusing a building permit if the project threatens the landscape, even if the landscape is not listed. However, this refusal will only be considered in the case where, although the landscape is not listed, it presents a certain aesthetic characteristic. In this case, the recent procedure in certain states is followed which consists in imposing that all requests for a building permit include a document presenting the effects of the project on the landscape with graphic and photographic documents indicating the before and after (French Law of 1993 governing landscape). The purpose of this landscape dossier linked to all building permits, in both urban as well as rural areas, is to oblige the demander to consider the visual impact of his project, and to help the authority responsible for granting the permit to consider more thoroughly the effect of all constructions on the landscape. Informative and Participatory Instruments Landscape is henceforth recognized as an individual and collective heritage. Hence, the entire population has the right to be associated with public decisions on heritage. In the past, heritage only interested artists and painters. Then, the experts, architects and landscape architects were the spokespersons for heritage. Today heritage has a role to play towards democratic citizenship. Contributing to the well-being of populations, and very probably to curbing violence, the search for a quality landscape has become a right for all, and not only for those who can appreciate remarkable landscapes. The right to landscape has engendered a right to landscape closely linked to the recognition, in international and national law, of a right of humanity to the environment.
The landscape has become everyones affair. This is why its legal treatment requires democratic procedures for information and participation, at the international level as well as at national and local levels. As expressed in the Explanatory Report of the European Landscape Convention:
24. If people are given an active role in decision-making on landscape, they are more likely to identify with the areas and towns where they spend their working and leisure time. If they have more influence on their surroundings, they will be able to reinforce local and regional identity and distinctiveness and this will bring rewards in terms of individual, social and cultural fulfilment. This in turn may help to promote the sustainable development of the area concerned, as the quality of landscape has an important bearing on the success of economic and social initiatives, whether public or private.
To make the exercise of power as concerns landscape more democratic, the European Landscape Convention is inspired by the principles of the Aarhus Convention of 1998 concerning access to information, public participation in the decision process and access to justice concerning the environment. Competency as concerns the landscape does not necessarily need to be national. In respect of the principle of subsidiary, each state will determine the most appropriate level. The local populations are the first to be interested, even if they are not always those with the greatest knowledge of their landscape that has become mediocre and banal in their eyes. Article 5c of the European Landscape Convention calls for the establishment of procedures for the participation of the general public, local and regional authorities and other parties with an interest in the definition and implementation of the landscape policies. The local actors must also be closely associated with the identification of landscapes and the formulation of the objectives of quality landscape. Of course, the public will play an active role in the actions for protection, management and development. The success of this participation policy based on volunteerism necessitates prior implementation of all the awareness-raising and information actions that the Convention foresees in its Articles 6a and 6b.
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Fourth, cultural landscape law must delimit the jurisdiction of state law over cultural landscapes. Simultaneously, the law must carve out a place and a role for customary or traditional law and institutions in the management and protection of cultural landscapes. The relationship between state law and customary law has typically been one of antagonism and conflict, with state law designed to abolish and replace customary law. This has undermined the integrity of customary law and its ability to protect cultural landscapes. Cultural landscape law must reverse this trend and seek to create synergy and a complementary relationship between state law and customary law. The role of state law should be confined to setting broad standards or benchmarks to be adhered to in the management of cultural landscapes. Day-to-day management should be reserved for customary law and its institutions.
Concluding Remarks
The inclusion of associative cultural landscapes with room to use traditional management systems to protect them presents an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity is to be able to list landscapes in terms with which communities can identify and thereby move towards addressing the imbalance in listings. The challenge is to design legal systems that can use traditional and customary forms of protective mechanisms without foregoing the benefits of modern state legal systems. This paper argues that the theory of legal pluralism can provide that synergy. Cultural landscape law needs to incorporate it into statutes. If this is done, sustainability of traditional management systems can be achieved. It must be stressed, however, that a legally pluralistic legal framework would not succeed in the absence of a comprehensive strategy for fostering and reinforcing the viability of the community as a whole. A cultural landscape devoid of a viable community would not be sustainable.
Community Participation
The protection of cultural landscapes through traditional management systems necessitates that the community participates in decision-making with regard to cultural landscapes and in implementation of those decisions. Community participation has two components: a right of access to information and a right to be consulted in decision-making. Conventional legal regimes usually restrict the availability of information to communities and the public generally. This has turned communities into passive observers of events around them. To facilitate community management of cultural landscapes, the right of access to information about the cultural landscapes must be extended to communities. Equally important is a statutory right in the community to be consulted about, and participate in, decisions and actions affecting cultural landscapes. This statutory right would enshrine locus standi in the community to take court action in relation to decisions and actions affecting cultural landscapes.
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The meeting was attended by 51 participants from 19 countries representing governmental institutions, inter- and non-governmental organizations, including the Council of Europe, IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM, IFLA, IGU, as well as foundations (including the German Environmental Foundation, the Nordic World Heritage Foundation, the Aga Khan Trust and the World Monuments Fund), universities, training institutions (including the Conservation Study Institute, the IPOGEA Centre for Traditional Knowledge (Matera), and the International Centre for Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes (Province of Salerno), local authorities, World Heritage site managers and other partners.
However, over the past ten years, a number of challenges have emerged: insufficient co-operation between countries; limited implementation of the Global Strategy for a balanced World Heritage List; regional imbalances: 21 of the inscribed sites are in Europe; lack of capacity to bring forward credible nominations of cultural landscapes; restricted resources and weak institutions for effective management; difficulties in sustaining traditional forms of land-use, which give rise to cultural landscapes, in circumstances of rapid socio-economic change and limited capacities to deal with tourism; and the need to strengthen linkages between the cultural landscape concept and other designation systems, notably IUCN Category V protected areas (protected landscapes/seascapes) and the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve network.
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Transmitting the Character, Significance and Values of Cultural Landscapes: Cultural Diversity and Future Generations
Many cultural landscapes continue to evolve: the challenge of management is to guide this process of change so that the essential qualities of the area survive. Cultural landscapes provide people with a sense of identity: both social groups and individuals derive from them a sense of belonging to a place. They can provide classic examples of sustainable land-use and often create niches for important biodiversity. Furthermore, many cultural landscapes contain important reservoirs in genetic diversity within the crops and livestocks used in traditional land-use systems. Collectively, these landscapes capture a range of cultural diversity, and each of them can provide a demonstration of interactions with the natural environment in a particular place. One of the great innovations of the cultural landscape concept is that it provides the opportunity for nominations from parts of the world which express their culture in ways other than through monumental heritage towards which the Convention had evolved during its first 20 years. This allows for the expression of the intangible and spiritual values. This means, that through cultural landscapes, a select number of World Heritage sites now exists whose validity is based on intangible values and traditional knowledge. The transmission of such knowledge, practices and skills is a major challenge for the next decade.
natural resources. Continued encouragement of interdisciplinary approach of this kind is therefore essential. Since cultural landscapes link culture and nature, it is essential that ICOMOS and IUCN as Advisory Bodies continue to co-operate in the cultural landscapes evaluation, monitoring and related matters.
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strengthening co-operation between natural and cultural heritage institutions; enhancing partnerships in landscape conservation and management at all levels, overcoming the administrative divide between institutions dealing with natural and cultural (national and international) issues and supporting an integrated and holistic management approach; supporting social structures, traditional knowledge and indigenous practices which are vital for the survival of the cultural landscapes, and recognizing the crucial role of intangible and spiritual values; providing guidelines for national legislation for cultural landscapes, including transboundary areas and bufferzones; re-assessing cultural and natural sites already on the World Heritage List, to ensure that cultural landscape potential is recognized through re-nomination if appropriate; extending the concept of cultural landscapes from its present rural focus to include other landscapes, including cityscapes, seascapes and industrial landscapes; demonstrating how the recognition of cultural landscapes can generate economic development and sustainable livelihoods within the site and beyond; using cultural landscape conservation to promote new approaches in international co-operation among nations and peoples;
promoting the lessons being learnt from cultural landscapes in other international instruments; using the World Heritage processes for training and capacity building and promoting better communication and public awareness about cultural landscapes; developing a stronger system to ensure rapid intervention and mobilizing resources for cultural landscapes under threat; addressing as a priority for advice and assistance the specific challenges of agricultural change and tourism pressures within cultural landscapes; and continuous advocacy and promotion by all partners in the World Heritage system of the importance of cultural landscapes. Finally, the meeting deeply appreciated the food products of the cultural landscapes and welcomed the international support for the slow food movement which originated in Italy. It expressed its sincere thanks to the authorities of the Province and the City of Ferrara for hosting the meeting and the University of Ferrara for acknowledging the importance of the cultural landscape concept by establishing a new research and training institution, the International Centre of Studies on Cultural Landscapes.
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The workshop was organised by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre with the local authorities, the City of Ferrara, Province of Ferrara, and the University of Ferrara, in collaboration with IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM, and the Nordic World Heritage Foundation. It was attended by 51 participants from 19 countries representing governmental institutions, inter- and non-governmental organizations, including the Council of Europe, IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM, IFLA, IGU, as well as foundations (including the German Environmental Foundation, the Nordic World Heritage Foundation, the Aga Khan Trust and the World Monuments Fund), universities and training institutions (including the Conservation Study Institute, the IPOGEA Centre for Traditional Knowledge of Matera, and the International Centre for Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes, Province of Salerno), local authorities, World Heritage site managers and other partners.
The representative of UNESCO, Ms Mechtild Rssler, transmitted greetings on behalf of the Director General of UNESCO and the Director of the World Heritage Centre. As one of the nine workshops held prior to the Venice conference on the 30th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention Shared legacy common responsibility, it celebrates also 10 years of the cultural landscape concept, one of the most important changes in the interpretation of the Convention. She thanked the Province, the City and the University of Ferrara for their generous support and stated that the World Heritage extension of the city as a cultural landscape in 1999 was a symbol of the new vision and may give inspiration for the conduct of this workshop. The Chairperson of the first session, Prof Gaballa Gaballa (Egypt) expressed his pleasure in having been part of the first 30 years of World Heritage as his country was at the origins of the Convention with the campaign to save the Nubian temples. From an initial focus on monumental heritage, the work has now been enlarged to include cultural landscapes the anniversary gives the unique opportunity to reflect not only about the concept but also its implementation. Prof. Paolo Ceccarelli (Italy) introduced the work of the University of Ferrara school of architecture, which started five years ago to focus on cultural landscapes and sustainable development. He retraced the history of the landscape construction by the Dukes of Ferrara who brought in Dutch people in for their expertise in water technology. Two years ago, the first major conference Ferrara Paesaggio was organized with UNESCO's participation. The main issue was to prepare the young generation for the challenges of landscape conservation and related issues. The organization of territories, their transformation and analysis and the integration of the results on planning processes and regional development have been among the main themes of the Ferrara school. Ten years of World Heritage cultural landscapes is an occasion to celebrate, but also to think beyond, to what is most needed now, the main theme of this conference. Dr Mechtild Rssler (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) informed the participants that she has been involved with the implementation of the cultural landscape concept within UNESCO for the last 10 years. The Convention, adopted in 1972, integrated the combined works of nature and man in its Article 1 and is therefore a unique instrument at the interface between nature and culture. However, in the 30 years of its implementation only 23 socalled mixed sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Only in 1992 and after a number of debates, the World Heritage Convention became the first
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international legal instrument to recognise and protect cultural landscapes with the adoption of categories to guide their inclusion in the World Heritage List. This decision was a milestone achievement in many ways, as it embraces: a recognition of the diversity of manifestations of the interaction between humankind and its natural environment; the introduction of the term sustainability into the Operational Guidelines via specific techniques of sustainable land-use; the acceptance of the living heritage of indigenous people; the introduction of traditional management mechanisms into the Operational Guidelines and the recognition of traditional forms of land-use as well as the notion of maintaining biological diversity through cultural diversity; consideration of spiritual relationships to nature and the opening of the Convention to other parts of the world, in particular the Caribbean, the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa. It also paved the way for the Global Strategy for a representative World Heritage List adopted in 1994. Prof. Peter Fowler (United Kingdom) introduced his study on World Heritage cultural landscapes, 1992-2002 carried out at the request of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. He underlined that the World Heritage cultural landscape categories developed in 1992 had stood the test of time and that 10 years later 30 official cultural landscapes have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. These are carefully selected samples and reveal and sustain the great diversity of human interaction over time. They are living examples of cultures and societies and preserve the traces of the past. The only criticism he had encountered was a statement by a representative from the Council of Europe describing World Heritage cultural landscapes as elitist and providing an artificial distinction between such landscapes and ordinary landscapes. The 1993 Action Plan for Cultural Landscapes proved to be a useful document. Many of the issues identified are still on the agenda, however, such as the need for guidance in updating of tentative lists and the promotion of cultural landscapes. He concluded that there is no need to change the categories, as they are conceptual and not functional. However, a number of issues need to be addressed: cultural landscapes inscribed on the World Heritage List should be specifically identified as such at the time of inscription; all types of landscape can be considered, for example urban, industrial and coastal/marine, and, other landscapes containing outstanding universal values; the principles underlying the Committees Global Strategy in encouraging and selecting cultural landscapes nominations for, and inscribing on, the World Heritage List; the highest standards of landscape and of nomination dossiers, bearing in mind that quality rather than quantity is a key criterion for this new concept in World Heritage; insisting that the proposed management regime is both appropriate in style and adequately resourced and that, specifically with respect to the protection of cultural landscapes, the potential of working with executive
agencies at regional level should be fully developed; a project be undertaken to provide the basis for all major cultures in the world to be represented by a cultural landscape; research be encouraged into numerical and other methodologies arising from an improved data-base of World Heritage information, to complement conventional assessment of existing properties on, and nominations to, the World Heritage List; a series of regional thematic studies of farming landscapes (pastoral and arable) as well as the worlds staple food should be made with a view to a global overview providing some criteria of how to distinguish, in World Heritage terms, potential cultural landscapes resulting from the commonest land-use in the world; World Heritage cultural landscapes should be subject to continual monitoring and periodic, external review. He also explained the methodology of his study, the numerical analysis of both the existing list, which contains many landscapes inscribed prior to 1992 as well as the tentative lists. He concluded that the regional distribution of landscapes reveals that a majority are located in Europe and this should be addressed as a matter of priority. Ms Katri Lisitzin (ICCROM) informed the participants about ICCROM, an international intergovernmental organisation created in 1956 by UNESCO to provide leadership in developing training for, what was at that time, the new field of cultural heritage conservation. ICCROM, as one of the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee, has been involved with the development of the cultural landscapes framework by the Committee over the last 10 years. Landscape has been a component of ICCROM courses, in particular with ICCROM's ITUC (Integrated Territorial and Urban Conservation) Programme created in 1995. ITUC focuses specifically on the integration of cultural heritage in the sustainable planning, management and development of both urban and rural settlements. The territorial component of the programme addresses a wide range of issues, including strategies for the development of living landscapes, and site management in designed and relict landscapes. The focus is on sustainable management of heritage values in landscapes in the context of the diversity of cultures and traditional practices present in the world. In November 2002, ICCROM began a month-long training course for 18 international experts in the field, the first such ICCROM training activity exclusively devoted to cultural landscapes. ICCROM hopes to make available to all interested training institutions and agencies the curriculum development lessons gained during the course, after testing and refinement. Issues addressed during the course include the relationship of people and place over time, traditional land uses, recognition of the changes in the perception of landscape values, the interaction of nature and culture (taking specific note of the conceptual differences in these relations in different cultures and contexts), involvement of many disciplines in integrating various management systems, the connection with supporting societys needs, and the complexity of ownership
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and multiple jurisdictions. She concluded that ICCROM is looking for opportunities, with its many international, regional and national partners, to continue to strengthen efforts to test landscape management curriculum materials and to move towards greater understanding, acceptance and fruitful application in all parts of the world. Ms Carmen Anon (ICOMOS) stated that ICOMOS is the advisory body to the World Heritage Committee which takes the lead in evaluating cultural landscapes, with inputs from IUCN when appropriate, depending on the specific nomination. She explained that the ICOMOS Garden and Landscape Committee is also available to address specific issues. She emphasised that landscape is the vehicle for our relation with nature. Landscape is also a means of communication between man and nature. Landscape is the direct consequence of the interaction between geography and man, who modelled it within a variety of cultural processes. When a community with a specific culture shares the same values concerning landscape, the idea of it becomes a social construction. Mankind presents landscape as a cultural symbol when it obtains an ethical, aesthetic or historic sense through observation and understanding of the laws of nature. The continuous analysis and interpretation of the landscape provides the community with the essential components of its identity. After presenting the basic values of landscape, she analysed the current situation: the fast identity transformations that society is undergoing today are due to the influence of different cultures and market demands, not to the harmonious relation with the landscape. In this sense, two theories can be distinguished: (1) our understanding of landscape is conditioned by our cultural and intellectual background; (2) there could be an ancestral feeling that relates us to the landscape that is independent from our personal education. To understand the cultural heritage of landscapes there is a need to study and interpret its symbols and transformations of it. The interest in landscapes is increasing as this harmonious relationship is being destroyed. She concluded that a new dialogue between people and nature is needed to recover the lost landscape and to appreciate the landscape that is still there. It is fundamental to understand that nature and landscape cannot be separated from culture. Mr Adrian Phillips (IUCN) explained that IUCN played an important role in the development of the principles of cultural landscapes under the World Heritage Convention, and has been closely involved as a partner with ICOMOS in the realisation of this type of World Heritage site since 1992. Though the Convention as a whole is 30 years old, cultural landscapes have only been around for 10, so experience is as yet rather limited. Nonetheless, it is clear already that there are a number of close links between the thinking developed by IUCN on protected areas and the World Heritage Cultural Landscapes concept. He underlined that many land use systems contain biodiversity and can be models of sustainable land use. Moreover, often they are sites of scientific discoveries. Cultural landscapes have to be seen in the overall system of protected areas.
They have played an important role to get people into the system and to see the interconnection between cultural and natural values. He concluded that many cultural landscape management issues are similar to those for natural sites and that associative values are critical. The task force on non-material values of protected areas is of specific relevance for cultural landscapes as strategies for conservation have to include natural and cultural values. Finally, he informed participants that the 2003 World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa is an important event for promoting cultural landscapes and joining conservation strategies. A lively debate followed, which focussed on the following themes: the integration of industrial and urban landscapes of the 20th century; the issue of evolving agricultural systems with the globalisation and the subsidies system in the European Union: How can traditional ways of land management be preserved? the celebration of the concept as it is a major step forward: landscapes are more than a sum of different parts. They conserve past evidence for the future, therefore the development of the resources can only be done in a holistic perspective; the need for new professionals to work at the interface between natural, social and cultural sciences; the necessity to disseminate management guidelines to assist people at all levels with the nominations; the essential training in management of cultural landscapes which is carried out at a number of institutions (e.g. Cilento National Park); the necessity for the development of models for stewardship and management excellence; the need to analyse problems including why States Parties do not nominate cultural landscapes (e.g. China); the development of criteria to evaluate landscapes without value judgements, e.g. landscapes which provide sustainable practices; the need to address, at all levels, the issue of balance between the regions, including capacity building, awareness raising, technical assistance etc. Mr Arno Schmid welcomed the workshop to the panel discussion on Europe a model?. He informed participants that his organisation is the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), a professional organisation, which has been involved with cultural landscapes during the past ten years. He then introduced the panellists and invited them to give brief statements: Ms Maguelonne Djeant-Pons (Council of Europe) introduced the work of the Council of Europe in general and more specifically the landscape focus. On the basis of a draft prepared by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE), the Committee of Ministers decided in 1999 to set up a select group of experts responsible for drafting a European Landscape Convention, under the aegis of the Cultural Heritage Committee and the Committee for the activities of the Council of Europe
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in the field of biological and landscape diversity. Following the experts work, the Committee of Ministers adopted the final text of the Convention on 19 July 2000. The Convention was opened for signature in Florence, Italy on 20 October 2000 in the context of the Council of Europe Campaign Europe, a common heritage. As of November 2002, 24 States have signed it and five of them, Norway, Moldova, Ireland, Romania and Croatia have approved/ratified it. The Convention will come into force once it has been ratified by ten Signatory States. The objective of the Convention is to further the protection, management and planning of European landscapes, and to organise European co-operation for these purposes. Its scope is very extensive including the entire territory of the Parties and relating to natural, urban and peri-urban areas, whether on land, water or sea. It therefore concerns not just remarkable landscapes but also ordinary everyday landscapes and blighted areas. Landscape is henceforth recognised irrespective of its exceptional value, since all forms of landscape are crucial to the quality of the citizens environment and deserve to be considered in landscape policies. Many rural and urban fringe areas in particular are undergoing far-reaching transformations and must receive closer attention from the authorities and the public. The next conference takes place from 28 to 29 November 2002 in Strasbourg to encourage signatures. Prof. Mariolina Besio (University of Genova) provided examples from the experience at the Cinque Terre World Heritage site, inscribed in 1997. It became a National Park in 1999, allowing for new environmental planning tools. She pointed out that not only the views of the natural and cultural scientists differ in the interpretation and protection of the landscape heritage but also the views of the inhabitants. The economic survival of this complex terraced landscape structure is crucial both for the livelihood of the people but also for the survival of the ecological system as well as the settlements (landslides!). Mr Andrea Baldiolo (World Monuments Fund) welcomed this seminar for basic reflections on how to deal with such landscapes. His organization is financing projects at Cinque Terre for the maintenance of the terraces. Other projects may support similar systems in the future. Ms Carla Maurano (International Centre for Mediterranean Landscapes) informed the participants of the creation of her institution by the Province of Salerno in 1998. She highlighted the important links between Europe and the Arab Region across the Mediterranean and replied to the question of the round table that Europe is not the model. The two World Heritage landscapes in the region, Cilento National Park and the Amalfi Coast are completely different, one site is influenced by the Arab culture (Cilento National Park), the other one not at all. A methodology for the management of these sites and a strategy on how to develop them has to be discussed. Furthermore, intangible heritage has to be included and traditional knowledge
strengthened as we are losing ways of interaction with nature. Training is crucial and new conservation strategies fundamental for the survival of these landscapes. Ms Jane Lennon (Australia) pointed out that people appreciate the layered history of cultural landscapes, as they illustrate the relationship between time, people and places. The new definition of landscape in the European Convention seems to be interesting, as all influences must be taken into account including the transfer of landscape heritage of European origin. For example, one could think of the Australian mining sites as European relict sites, the English influences before World War II in public gardens and the Japanese gardens of reconciliation after the war. The recognition of aboriginal art has brought a shift in values. Community involvement is crucial in the maintenance of all values at a site. Ms Miriam Ladet (Mission Val de Loire) informed the participants of the 280 km long linear landscape of the Loire Valley covers 800 sq km, includes a million inhabitants and 160 local governments. An innovative process of managing this World Heritage landscape was started with a new structure including a territorial assembly of the local authorities, a development committee of the local communities, and the Loire Valley mission. The main objectives are to adapt the legal frameworks to strengthen awareness, to develop action plans and to create adapted economic development for the site and ensure excellency, quality and sustainability. The discussion highlighted the need for proper management including a coordinating agency such as the Loire Valley mission. The imbalances between Europe and other regions of the world was pointed out: the same imbalance as in the World Heritage List exists also for the protected area categories. Category V (protected landscapes and seascapes) cover 66% of all European protected areas. Furthermore the question of how to protect living cultural landscapes was raised: How can they survive for future generations to enjoy? Europe cannot be seen as a model as such: Europe has to learn from other parts of the world. Particular landscapes illustrate the diversity of cultures and are a very special expression of cultural diversity on earth as they link tangible and intangible heritage. In particular the Mediterranean region gave shape to European heritage with Arab, Greek and Roman influences. With the transfer of landscape heritage, the paradigm of heritage interpretation is changing. Tourism cannot be the only solution for the survival of landscapes. A much broader approach to include the tremendous skills, technology, and production methods of the people has to be promoted. The discussion also touched upon the difference between the two models: the World Heritage Convention with its very specific definition of landscapes in its Operational Guidelines and the European Landscape Convention where landscape covers everything. For both, however management frameworks need to be developed. Also,
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how the two Conventions could cooperate needs to be examined as the Committee saw the potential for taking off pressure for the World Heritage List from European countries with the adoption of the Landscape Convention in 2000. Several levels of recognition could exist. The European experience can be considered as a pivotal focussing for the general public and their wish to enjoy high quality landscapes. Prof Adalberto Vallega (IGU) informed the participants of the work of the International Geographical Union and provided some provocative remarks. He noted that the natural components of the landscape are analysed with a positivistic approach whereas the cultural components are examined with a structural approach. Two completely different perspectives exist: the insiders use the landscapes, where as the outsiders use their symbols. He also highlighted the results of the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development, crucial for cultural landscapes.
Ms. Carla Maurano (International Centre for Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes) informed the participants of a new training programme for site managers from the Arab Region, which takes place at the Cilento National Park. The training of trainers and managers is crucial for integrated landscape management, but is rarely covered by traditional university education and other training programmes. Both the tangible and intangible heritage has to be looked at and this is the focus of the Paestum Charta (see Annex). She proposed the Cilento Centre as a coordination point for such training activities in the light of World Heritage partnerships. The lively discussion that followed underlined the technical and traditional know-how and its transfer from one culture to another. Furthermore, the question was raised whether most conservation efforts are lost, as many sites are not seen in their landscape context and setting. Other desert landscapes need to be looked at as well including those in Asia or ice deserts in the Polar Regions.
Arab Region
Prof. Pietro Laureano (Matera Centre for Desertification) explained the creation of irrigation and oasis systems illustrate extraordinary human creativity. Small depressions attract plants, which in turn create shade and attract other organisms. This is sometimes artificially created by man. The complex system of irrigation was set up not only for water capture and transport and but also for climatization. The oasis is a microcosm requiring a holistic approach of sustainability. The town planning based on the landscape and environmental conditions can only be understood in this context, which is relevant for integrated conservation approaches (e.g. Petra, Sanaa etc.). The traditional knowledge provides a new paradigm of sustainability over time, which is illustrated also in spirituality of the people and symbols. Prof. Ali Gaballa (Egypt) provided an overview of the results of the seminar on desert landscapes and oasis systems organised in the western desert of Egypt in 2001. The appearance of hominids in Eastern Africa was also the origin of nomadism in the desert. The deserts in the Arab Region and Africa therefore illustrate the beginnings of human cultures. Evidence has been found from Morocco to Egypt in rock art and archaeological findings that indicate a civilization dependant on animal husbandry, cultivation and oasis settlements. Civilization in Egypt therefore comes from the desert this is also evident from the trade routes of the Western Sahara.
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transportation routes. At the same time, the site is under threat both from socio-economic changes and environmental pollution. Prof. Paolo Ceccarelli (University of Ferrara) explained a cooperative programme between his university and the University of Montevideo (Uruguay) to enhance the management capability and to strengthen local development in urban landscapes. New cooperative projects are currently being developed with Cuba and research will continue on landscape systems and different approaches to development. During the discussion, it was recalled that there would be a change in the Operational Guidelines to overcome the divide between natural and cultural heritage by unifying the criteria into one set. It was also stated that we might not be ready to deal with such complex systems as cultural landscapes because of the complexity of their resources and the requirements for professionals. In terms of partnerships, both research and training on cultural landscapes need to be intensified.
UNESCO meeting organized in Japan in 2001. The concept of cultural landscapes is relevant to sacred mountains as they encompass the spiritual meaning of a place. Traditional cultural practices embody both tangible and intangible heritage. The question of authenticity and integrity of cultural landscapes also needs to be addressed. He also gave details on the case of the Philippine Rice Terraces an emblematic site for World Heritage cultural landscapes, both on a global scale and as a key site for terraces rice cultures in Asia. At the same time, the sustainability of such sites needs to be reviewed with global economic and local social changes. In the discussion that followed, the participants underscored the universality of spiritual values of all regions of the world and of common features. Threats to indigenous cultures also exist in many parts of the world. Research has to be carried out on the evidence of the human interaction in order not to fall into the trap of romanticising cultural landscapes and traditional cultures.
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Africa
Mr Dawson Munjeri (Zimbabwe) gave a full overview of the situation of cultural landscapes in Africa and highlighted a number of case studies. The issue of threats to the traditional cultures and the nature/culture synergies in African societies has to be taken into account. Cultural landscapes by their nature are an expression of the interactions between people and the natural environment, reflecting specific techniques of sustainable land use considering the characteristics and limits of the natural environment. They are by extension, a microcosm of the global picture that is presented via the Rio, Kyoto, Johannesburg summits etc. In both scenarios therefore there ought to be negotiated processes between humankind and nature as well as among humankind. For Africa at least that is a sine qua non. Furthermore, the African belief systems did not assert monopoly of the soul to the human species alone. A tree, a rock, a mountain, a water pool, a snake etc could have a respected in Africa cosmology. The veracity of such an assertion is proved by the fact that to date all the African cultural landscapes on the UNESCO World Heritage List including Sukur (Nigeria), Drakensburg/Ukhahlamba (South Africa), Tsodilo (Botswana), Kasubi Tombs (Uganda) and the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga (Madagascar) have strong traditional and spiritual values. The continuity of traditions and the systems that sustain them remains the key to African cultural landscapes. Lastly it is also an issue of involvement of all relevant stakeholders. Primordially it begins with resident populations and their socio-cultural-economic needs. What this entails is a partnership system founded on legislation, policies and practices that recognize that it is the resident populations that helped shape the cultural landscape. On behalf of Mr Joseph Eboreime and Mr Akin Liasu (Nigeria) who were delayed for logistical problems he also explained the case of the first cultural landscape in Africa ever inscribed on the World Heritage List: Sukur cultural landscape in Nigeria. Situated in the Mandara Mountains, the site comprises a plateau dominating the hills, which are characteristic of the Nigeriano-Camerooni area. Sukur was inhabited in ancient times and specialised in the production and dissemination of ironwork. The inhabitants are associated in a pyramidal institution located in the granite palace of Hindi, the symbolic and collective woman of the Sukur community. Other than the palace, the site comprises conical stone enclosures for cattle, (to be fattened up for certain ceremonies), ovens for the production of iron, agricultural terraces forming a spectacular landscape including a number of spiritual elements (sacred trees, doors, tombs, etc.). The site of Sukur contains all the diversity and complexity of African cultural landscapes. This landscape unites associative, technological and agricultural characteristics, which constitute the story of past and present day life of an entire community, over several centuries. Ms Synnove Vinsrygg (Nordic World Heritage Foundation) described future challenges particularly funding and main-
streaming and exemplified these with a case study from a World Bank Project. The Bank is adapting to a new policy, which is illustrated by cultural heritage impact assessments and policies. A recent pan-African workshop was held in Kimberly (South Africa), which presented both conservation potentials and threats. Proposals for follow-up and cooperation in landscape conservation in Africa can now be developed between UNESCO and the Bank. Some ongoing projects provide models for the future, if the lessons learnt, such as those in community development, can be put into practice. The following debate emphasized recent changes in the World Bank to address cultural heritage and landscape issues. It also focussed on conceptual clarifications for cultural landscapes in the African context, because some nominations did not specify whether a site was a cultural landscape, a funeral place, or an archaeological park. This has substantive implications for the recognition of the values for which the site is inscribed and its integrated management.
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and protection of bufferzones of scenic areas were also addressed. The concept of territory depends on the specific legal framework. In the African countries, laws have been developed by the European colonizing powers and administrators, mainly to divide territories and to protect certain areas from communities. Often communities were divided into several districts, which can be seen in the case of the Massai in Kenya. The laws of nation states have perceptions of territorial scope, which illustrates a major problem because it is difficult to find common management arrangements for the communities in cultural landscapes covering different administrative territories. The question of governance and the definition of boundaries seem to be crucial. (3) Who is involved? In the European context, it is the public authorities and the public in general who are involved. However, cultural landscapes are first local heritage issues then one of universal heritage. Therefore people have to be involved in all landscape processes and management. Cultural landscapes seem to be important in the African context as they focus on traditional practices. Ethic groups are more than the sum of the individual members. This is a difficult concept for nation states, as this addresses issues of land rights and community authority systems. At the Kasubi tombs for example, the community is the holistic entity to deal with all management questions. Therefore communities must be allowed to participate in all decision-making including World Heritage Listing. (4) How to manage cultural landscapes? The Convention itself requests each State Party to take appropriate legal and other measures. This implies different elements such as guidelines for national legal measures. In the case of protected areas this is often specific, but it is not well adapted for cultural landscapes. But what would be the adapted legal measure? It could only be a territorial framework without an institutional one. In European community law directives for strategic impact assessments are given. In the African context, this is often covered through traditional management and customary law by the communities and their elders. Detailed studies of legislation and its implementation and reinforcement have to be carried out. Often management tends to be inadequate and local communities have been alienated from their cultural landscapes. In law enforcement, the perceptions of local communities have to be taken into account for adequate landscape management. The chairperson thanked both lawyers for this extraordinary dialogue, which was one of the most fascinating discussions during the seminar. The two lawyers had met for the first time at this World Heritage cultural landscape workshop. At the same time, the dialogue directed us towards the immense challenges in landscape conservation, management and legal protection. This dialogue between European legal provisions for cultural landscapes and African customary law and traditional protection not
only brought to light those issues to be addressed in future, but also provided new perspectives and a vision for the future without being afraid to address past problems such as the colonial heritage. The chairperson then thanked all participants for their contributions and the UNESCO secretariat for assisting in the preparation of the draft conclusions, which were shared between all chairpersons and participants during the day. These conclusions will be now presented at the press conference.
Public Press Conference and Closure of the Seminar at the Ferrara Theatre
Prof. Adrian Phillips, on behalf of the participants, introduced the conclusions of the workshops and informed the public that these conclusions will form a part of the 30th anniversary celebrations in Venice presented by the Rapporteur Mr Dawson Munjeri from Zimbabwe. Ms Mechtild Rssler thanked the authorities of the city of Ferrara and the Ferrara Province on behalf of UNESCO for their wonderful hospitality and their contribution to the conservation of cultural landscapes. The new vision for the next ten years of World Heritage landscape conservation was defined here in Ferrara and will be transmitted to all States Parties of the Convention. The President of the Ferrara Province, Mr Pier Giorgio Dall'Acqua, thanked all participants for having come to Ferrara and its Province and also for their conclusions to the seminar. His authorities will do everything to implement this vision for the province and its World Heritage cultural landscape and to address the management challenges in an exemplary way. The representative of the Mayor expressed his appreciation for the results of the workshop, which will be studied in detail by his authorities. He underlined in particular the concept of long-term sustainability already taken into account by the city. Prof Paolo Ceccarelli, on behalf of the President of the University informed the participants that a surprise is awaiting them: the university created a new Centre for Cultural Landscapes on the occasion of the World Heritage workshop. Ms Francesca Leder (University of Ferrara) informed the audience that this Centre has been created following a preliminary conference Ferrara Paesaggio in 2001. The Centre will not only focus on research but also on university training and capacity building and will operate as a platform for international cooperation important for landscape conservation. The participants then celebrated the closure of the seminar with products from the Province of Ferrara.
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13 November 2002
The field visit covered the designed landscapes of the Ferrara World Heritage site. It included a visit to the Voghiera Belriguardo, a lost designed garden and park landscape, now in agricultural use. The only remaining parts are the Sala delle Vigne and traces seen in aerial photos. At Portomaggiore the participants saw the Palace of the Verginese. A boat trip to visit the living fishing cultural landscape of the Po Delta, a protected area, followed and included the relict landscape of eel fishing traditions at Comacchio (Museo delle Valli). The excursion finished in Venice, where many participants were registered for the international conference in Venice Shared Legacy Common Responsibility.
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Latelier a runi 51 participants de 19 pays reprsentant des instances gouvernementales, des organisations intergouvernementales et non gouvernementales, dont notamment le Conseil de lEurope, lUICN, lICOMOS, lICCROM, lIFLA, lUGI, ainsi que des fondations (notamment la Fondation allemande pour lenvironnement, la Fondation nordique du patrimoine mondial, lAga Khan Trust for Culture et le World Monuments Fund, des universits, des organismes de formation (notamment le Conservation Study Institute, le Centre IPOGEA pour le savoir traditionnel de Matera et le Centre international pour les paysages culturels mditerranens, Province de Salerne), des collectivits locales, des gestionnaires de sites du patrimoine mondial et dautres partenaires.
essentielles aujourdhui encore lordre du jour, reste un document prcieux. Cependant, de nouveaux problmes ont surgi ces dix dernires annes : une coopration internationale insuffisante entre les pays ; la mise en uvre limite de la Stratgie globale pour une Liste du patrimoine mondial quilibre ; des dsquilibres rgionaux : 21 des sites inscrits se trouvent en Europe ; le manque de capacits pour prsenter des propositions crdibles dinscription de paysages culturels ; linsuffisance des ressources et la faiblesse des institutions pour une gestion efficace ; des difficults maintenir les formes traditionnelles dutilisation du sol qui engendrent les paysages culturels, dans un contexte dvolution socio-conomique rapide et de capacit limite grer le tourisme ; la ncessit de renforcer les liens entre le concept de paysage culturel et dautres systmes de dsignation, en particulier les zones protges de catgorie V de lUICN (paysages terrestres et marins protgs) et le Rseau des Rserves de la biosphre de lUNESCO.
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Transmettre le caractre, limportance et les valeurs des paysages culturels : diversit culturelle et gnrations futures
Nombreux sont les paysages culturels qui continuent voluer : la difficult, pour les gestionnaires, est alors de guider le processus de telle sorte que les qualits essentielles du lieu perdurent. Les paysages culturels procurent un sentiment didentit : ils donnent aux groupes sociaux et aux individus le sentiment dappartenir un lieu. Ils peuvent fournir des exemples classiques dutilisation durable des terres et crent souvent des niches de biodiversit majeure. Par les cultures pratiques et le btail lev dans le cadre des systmes traditionnels dutilisation du sol, beaucoup de paysages culturels reclent en outre dimportants rservoirs de diversit gntique. Pris ensemble ces paysages offrent une grande diversit culturelle, tandis que chacun deux peut apporter la preuve des interactions avec lenvironnement naturel dans un lieu particulier. Lune des grandes innovations du concept de paysage culturel est quil donne la possibilit de proposer linscription de sites de parties du monde o la culture sexprime autrement qu travers le patrimoine monumental vers lequel sest oriente la Convention pendant ses 20 premires annes dexistence. Il permet lexpression des valeurs immatrielles et spirituelles. Cela signifie que, travers les paysages culturels, il existe dsormais un certain nombre de sites du patrimoine mondial dont la validit repose sur des valeurs immatrielles et des savoirs traditionnels. La transmission de ces savoirs, pratiques et comptences reprsente un dfi majeur pour la prochaine dcennie.
Les tudes sur le caractre des paysages culturels rvlent souvent de nouveaux niveaux de comprhension, par exemple limportance des savoirs des autochtones pour la gestion des ressources naturelles. Il est donc essentiel dencourager en permanence ce type de dmarche pluridisciplinaire. Parce que les paysages culturels relient culture et nature, il est essentiel que lICOMOS et lUICN continuent, en tant quorganes consultatifs, cooprer dans le cadre de lvaluation des paysages culturels, du suivi et des activits connexes.
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dmontrer que les paysages culturels peuvent ouvrir la voie au dveloppement socio-conomique et gnrer des moyens de subsistance durables lintrieur du site et au-del ; utiliser la conservation des paysages culturels pour promouvoir de nouvelles approches de la coopration internationale entre les nations et les populations ; promouvoir les leons tires des paysages culturels dans dautres instruments internationaux ; utiliser les processus du patrimoine mondial pour la formation et le renforcement des capacits, et promouvoir une meilleure communication et sensibilisation du public aux questions de paysages culturels ; mettre en place un systme plus solide permettant dintervenir rapidement et de mobiliser des ressources en faveur des paysages culturels menacs ; sattaquer en priorit, dans le cadre des activits de conseil et dassistance, aux problmes dvolution de lagriculture et de pressions du tourisme lintrieur des paysages culturels ; dfendre et promouvoir en permanence, avec laide de tous les partenaires du systme du patrimoine mondial, limportance des paysages culturels. Enfin, les participants ont hautement apprci les produits alimentaires des paysages culturels et salu le soutien international au mouvement Slow Food qui a pris naissance en Italie. Ils ont exprim leurs sincres remerciements aux responsables de la Province et de la Ville de Ferrare pour avoir accueilli la runion, ainsi qu lUniversit de Ferrare pour avoir reconnu limportance du concept de paysage culturel en crant un nouvel organisme de recherche et de formation, le Centre international dtudes sur les paysages culturels .
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Cet atelier a t organis par le Centre du patrimoine mondial de lUNESCO avec les autorits locales, la Ville de Ferrare, la Province de Ferrare et lUniversit de Ferrare, en collaboration avec lUICN, lICOMOS, lICCROM et la Fondation nordique du patrimoine mondial. Il a runi 51 participants de 19 pays reprsentant des instances gouvernementales, des organisations gouvernementales, intergouvernementales et non gouvernementales, notamment le Conseil de lEurope, lUICN, lICOMOS, lICCROM, lIFLA, lUGI, ainsi que des fondations (notamment la Fondation allemande pour lenvironnement, la Fondation nordique du patrimoine mondial, lAga Khan Trust et le World Monuments Fund), des universits, des organismes de formation (dont le Conservation Study Institute, le Centre IPOGEA pour le savoir traditionnel de Matera et le Centre international pour les paysages culturels mditerranens, Province de Salerne), des autorits locales, des gestionnaires de sites du patrimoine mondial et dautres partenaires.
vraiment la complexit et constituait une base pour la conservation et le dveloppement rgional. Luniversit comptait accorder une grande attention aux rsultats de cet atelier et ses prolongements. La reprsentante de lUNESCO, Mme Mechtild Rssler, a transmis lassemble des vux de succs au nom du Directeur gnral de lUNESCO et du Directeur du Centre du patrimoine mondial. En tant que lun des neuf ateliers tenus avant la confrence de Venise pour le 30e anniversaire de la Convention du patrimoine mondial sur le thme Hritage partag responsabilit commune , cet atelier clbrait aussi les 10 ans du concept de paysage culturel, un des plus importants changements dans linterprtation de la Convention. Elle a remerci la Province, la Ville et lUniversit de Ferrare de leur appui gnreux et a dclar que lextension du classement de la ville comme paysage culturel en 1999 symbolisait la nouvelle vision et pouvait inspirer la conduite de cet atelier. Le Prsident de la premire sance, le Pr Ali Gaballa Gaballa (Egypte) sest dclar heureux davoir particip aux trente premires annes du patrimoine mondial, son pays tant lorigine de la Convention avec la campagne de sauvetage des temples de Nubie. Il a indiqu que le travail qui tait dabord uniquement centr sur le patrimoine monumental sest maintenant dvelopp pour inclure les paysages culturels et que cet anniversaire offrait une occasion unique de rflchir non seulement au concept, mais aussi son application. Le Pr Paolo Ceccarelli (Italie) a prsent le travail de lEcole dArchitecture de lUniversit de Ferrare qui privilgie depuis cinq ans ltude des paysages culturels et du dveloppement durable. Il a retrac lhistoire de la construction du paysage de la rgion par les ducs de Ferrare qui avaient fait venir sur place des Nerlandais, trs comptents en hydraulique. Deux ans plus tt, la premire grande confrence intitule Ferrara Paesaggio (le paysage de Ferrare), avait t organise avec la participation de lUNESCO. Objectif principal : prparer la jeune gnration aux problmes que posent la prservation du paysage et les questions associes. Lorganisation territoriale, sa transformation, lanalyse et lintgration des rsultats sur les processus de planification et sur le dveloppement rgional ont t les thmes essentiels de lEcole de Ferrare. Ces dix ans de paysages culturels du patrimoine mondial taient donc loccasion dune clbration, mais aussi dune vision prospective de ce quil fallait faire thme essentiel de cette confrence. Le Dr Mechtild Rssler (Centre du patrimoine mondial de lUNESCO) a inform les participants quelle participait
Ouverture de latelier
Le reprsentant du Prsident de la Province de Ferrare, M. Pier Giorgio Dall'Acqua, a chaleureusement accueilli les participants et a flicit les organisateurs davoir choisi ce lieu de runion, expliquant que la Province de Ferrare est fermement engage dans la prservation de son patrimoine culturel et de sa biodiversit. Le Delta du P, class comme extension de la Ville de Ferrare sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial, est un paysage de zone humide qui compte trois cents espces doiseaux. Il a donc recommand aux participants de revenir visiter ce lieu extraordinaire. Le reprsentant du Maire de Ferrare, M. Gaetano Sateriale, a souhait la bienvenue aux participants dans la ville de Ferrare, inscrite sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial en 1995. Il les a informs que la ville avait t pargne pendant la guerre et quelle conservait une qualit de vie clbre dans le monde entier. Il a rappel quil fallait favoriser de plus en plus le transfert du savoir et de la valeur de ses importantes ressources. Il sest flicit du choix du lieu de runion au chteau de Ferrare. Le Recteur de lUniversit, M. Francesco Conconi, a salu les participants et les a informs que son universit tait au premier plan de la recherche sur lassociation de la conservation et du dveloppement. Seule une analyse approfondie de lenvironnement naturel et des ressources culturelles pouvait nous permettre den comprendre
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activement la mise en uvre de la notion de paysage culturel au sein de lUNESCO depuis dix ans. La Convention, adopte en 1972, a intgr les uvres conjugues de lhomme et de la nature dans son article 1 . Cest donc un instrument unique qui fait linterface entre nature et culture. Pourtant, en trente ans de mise en uvre, il ny a eu que 23 sites dits mixtes inscrits sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial de lUNESCO. Ce nest quen 1992, et lissue de nombreux dbats, que la Convention du patrimoine mondial est devenue le premier instrument juridique international de reconnaissance et de protection des paysages culturels avec ladoption de catgories pour orienter leur inscription sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial. Cette dcision a t une tape importante de nombreux gards, incluant la fois une reconnaissance de la diversit des manifestations de linteraction entre lhumanit et son environnement naturel ; lintroduction du terme durabilit dans les Orientations avec les techniques spcifiques dutilisation durable des terres ; lacceptation du patrimoine vivant des peuples autochtones ; lintroduction de mcanismes de gestion traditionnelle dans les Orientations et la reconnaissance de formes traditionnelles dutilisation des terres, ainsi que la notion de maintien de la diversit biologique par la diversit culturelle ; la considration de relations spirituelles par rapport la nature et louverture de la Convention dautres rgions du monde en particulier les Carabes, le Pacifique et lAfrique subsaharienne. Elle a aussi ouvert la voie la Stratgie globale pour une Liste du patrimoine mondial reprsentative, adopte en 1994. Le Pr Peter Fowler (Royaume-Uni) a prsent son tude sur les paysages culturels du patrimoine mondial de 1992 2002, mene la demande du Centre du patrimoine mondial de lUNESCO. Il a soulign que les catgories de paysages culturels du patrimoine mondial tablies en 1992 avaient bien support lpreuve du temps et que, 10 ans plus tard, 30 paysages culturels officiels avaient t inscrits sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial. Ces paysages sont des exemples soigneusement choisis qui rvlent et maintiennent la grande diversit de linteraction humaine au cours du temps. La seule critique quil ait rencontre venait dun reprsentant du Conseil de lEurope qui avait dcrit les paysages culturels comme litistes et crant une distinction artificielle entre ces paysages et les paysages ordinaires. Le Plan daction de 1993 pour les paysages culturels sest rvl un document utile mais il reste de nombreuses questions traiter, notamment la ncessit dune orientation pour actualiser les listes indicatives, et la promotion des paysages culturels. Il a conclu quil ne fallait pas modifier les catgories, car elles sont conceptuelles et non fonctionnelles, mais quil fallait cependant aborder un certain nombre de questions : identifier prcisment comme tels lors de linscription les paysages culturels inscrits sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial ; pouvoir envisager tous les types de paysages, par exemple des paysages urbains, industriels et ctiers/marins, ainsi que dautres paysages possdant des valeurs universelles exceptionnelles ;
revoir les principes fondamentaux de la Stratgie globale du Comit pour promouvoir et slectionner les propositions dinscription de paysages culturels et linscription sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial ; viser aux plus hautes normes de paysages et de propositions dinscription, en tenant compte du fait que la qualit plus que la quantit est un critre essentiel pour ce nouveau concept de patrimoine mondial ; insister pour que le rgime de gestion propos ait un style adapt et bnficie de suffisamment de ressources et, en particulier en matire de protection des paysages culturels, pour que lon dveloppe totalement le potentiel de travail avec des agences excutives au niveau rgional ; entreprendre un projet permettant toutes les grandes cultures du monde dtre reprsentes dans un paysage culturel ; encourager la recherche sur la numrisation et autres mthodologies pour amliorer la base de donnes sur le patrimoine mondial, complter lvaluation conventionnelle des biens classs sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial et des propositions dinscription ; entreprendre une srie dtudes thmatiques rgionales des paysages agricoles (pastoraux et arables) ainsi que des produits alimentaires de base pour avoir une vue globale qui fournirait certains critres sur la manire de distinguer, en termes de patrimoine mondial, les paysages culturels potentiels rsultant de lutilisation des terres la plus couramment pratique dans le monde ; effectuer un suivi permanent et une revue priodique extrieure des paysages culturels du patrimoine mondial. Le Pr Fowler a galement expliqu la mthodologie de son tude, lanalyse numrique de la Liste actuelle qui contient de nombreux paysages inscrits avant 1992 ainsi que celle des listes indicatives. Il a conclu que la rpartition rgionale des paysages montre quils sont situs pour la plupart en Europe et que ltude de cette question est prioritaire. Mme Katri Lisitzin (ICCROM) a inform les participants sur lICCROM organisation intergouvernementale internationale cre en 1956 par lUNESCO pour tre le chef de file du dveloppement de la formation dans le domaine nouveau lpoque de la conservation du patrimoine culturel. LICCROM, en tant quun des organes consultatifs du Comit du patrimoine mondial, a particip la mise au point du cadre des paysages culturels par le Comit ces dix dernires annes, en particulier avec son Programme ITUC (Conservation territoriale et urbaine intgre), lanc en 1995. LITUC est prcisment centr sur lintgration du patrimoine culturel dans la planification durable, la gestion et le dveloppement des tablissements urbains aussi bien que ruraux. Le volet territorial du programme aborde une large srie de sujets, dont des stratgies pour le dveloppement des paysages vivants, et la gestion des sites dans les paysages conus intentionnellement et les paysages reliques. Laccent est mis sur la gestion durable des valeurs patrimoniales des paysages dans le contexte de la diversit des cultures et des pratiques traditionnelles existantes
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dans le monde. En novembre 2002, lICCROM a commenc un cours de formation dun mois destin 18 experts internationaux en la matire, premire activit de formation de lICCROM exclusivement consacre aux paysages culturels. LICCROM espre pouvoir mettre la disposition de toutes les institutions et agences de formation les leons damnagement du programme apprises durant le cours, aprs exprimentation et finalisation. Les questions traites au cours incluent les relations entre la population et les lieux au cours du temps, les modes dutilisation des terres, la reconnaissance des changements de perception des valeurs paysagres, linteraction nature-culture (en notant tout particulirement les diffrences conceptuelles de ces relations dans des cultures et contextes diffrents), la participation de nombreuses disciplines lintgration de diffrents systmes de gestion, le rapport avec les besoins de la socit concerne, et la complexit du droit de proprit et des multiples juridictions. Elle a conclu que lICCROM cherchait, avec ses nombreux partenaires internationaux, rgionaux et nationaux, continuer renforcer ses efforts pour exprimenter le matriel pdagogique sur la gestion des paysages et tendre une meilleure comprhension, une acceptation et une application fructueuse dans le monde entier. Mme Carmen Anon (ICOMOS) a dclar que lICOMOS est lorgane consultatif du Comit du patrimoine mondial qui est responsable des oprations dvaluation des paysages culturels, avec des apports de lUICN le cas chant, selon la spcificit de la proposition dinscription. Elle a expliqu que le Comit de lICOMOS pour les jardins historiques et paysages culturels est galement prt traiter des problmes particuliers. Elle a soulign que le paysage est le support de notre relation avec la nature. Le paysage est aussi un moyen de communication entre lhomme et la nature, la consquence directe de linteraction entre la gographie et lhomme qui la model par tout un ensemble de processus culturels. Lorsquune communaut dote dune culture particulire partage les mmes valeurs concernant le paysage, lide de ce paysage devient une construction sociale. Lhumanit prsente le paysage comme un symbole culturel lorsquelle parvient un sens thique, esthtique ou historique par lobservation et la comprhension des lois de la nature. Lanalyse permanente et linterprtation paysagre fournit la communaut les lments essentiels de son identit. Aprs avoir prsent les valeurs fondamentales du paysage, Mme Anon a analys la situation actuelle : les transformations identitaires rapides que subit actuellement la socit sont dues linfluence de diffrentes cultures et des exigences du march, et non lharmonieuse relation avec le paysage. A cet gard, on peut distinguer deux thories : (1) notre comprhension du paysage est conditionne par notre parcours culturel et intellectuel ; (2) il pourrait y avoir un sentiment ancestral qui nous relie au paysage et qui est indpendant de notre ducation personnelle. Pour comprendre lhritage culturel du paysage, il faut en tudier et interprter les symboles et les transformations. Lintrt pour les paysages se dveloppe au fur et masure de la destruction de cette relation harmonieuse. Elle a conclu
quil faut instaurer un nouveau dialogue entre lhomme et la nature pour retrouver le paysage perdu et apprcier le paysage qui perdure. Il est fondamental de comprendre que la nature et le paysage ne peuvent tre spars de la culture. M. Adrian Phillips (UICN) a expliqu que lUICN jouait un rle important dans llaboration des principes des paysages culturels, conformment la Convention du patrimoine mondial, et quelle a t troitement associe, en partenariat avec lICOMOS, la ralisation de ce type de patrimoine mondial depuis 1992. Bien que la Convention dans son ensemble ait 30 ans, les paysages culturels nen ont que 10, ce qui fait que lexprience reste limite. Nanmoins, il est dj clair quil existe de nombreux liens troits entre la conception labore par lUICN sur les aires protges et le concept de paysage culturel du patrimoine mondial. Il a soulign que de nombreux systmes dutilisation des terres permettent la biodiversit et peuvent tre des modles dutilisation durable des terres. Ce sont souvent, qui plus est, des sites de dcouvertes scientifiques. Les paysages culturels doivent tre vus dans le systme densemble des aires protges. Ils ont jou un grand rle pour faire participer la population au systme et pour rvler linterconnexion entre valeurs culturelles et naturelles. Il a conclu en dclarant que de nombreux problmes de gestion des paysages culturels se retrouvent dans les sites naturels et que les valeurs associatives sont essentielles. Le groupe dtude sur les valeurs non matrielles des aires protges prsente un intrt tout particulier pour les paysages culturels car les stratgies de conservation doivent inclure des valeurs naturelles et culturelles. Enfin, il a inform les participants que le Congrs mondial des Parcs de 2003 Durban, Afrique du Sud, est un vnement important pour la promotion des paysages culturels et lassociation des stratgies de conservation. Un dbat anim a suivi sur les thmes suivants : lintgration des paysages industriels et urbains du XXe sicle ; la question des systmes agricoles en volution avec la mondialisation et le systme dindemnits de lUnion europenne : comment prserver les moyens traditionnels de gestion des terres ? la clbration du concept actuel est une grande avance : les paysages sont plus quune somme dlments diffrents. Ils conservent les traces du pass pour lavenir, le dveloppement des ressources ne peut donc tre fait que dans une perspective globale ; la ncessit pour les nouveaux professionnels de travailler linterface entre les sciences naturelles, sociales et culturelles ; la ncessit de diffuser les directives de gestion pour aider les responsables tous les niveaux pour les propositions dinscription ; la formation essentielle en gestion des paysages culturels qui est assure dans certaines institutions (par ex. le Parc national du Cilento) ; la ncessit de mettre au point dexcellents modles de direction et de gestion ;
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la ncessit danalyser les problmes notamment la raison pour laquelle des Etats parties ne proposent pas dinscription de paysages culturels (par ex. la Chine) ; la mise au point de critres dvaluation des paysages, sans jugements de valeur, par exemple des paysages qui disposent de pratiques durables ; la ncessit de traiter tous les niveaux la question de lquilibre entre les rgions, notamment le renforcement des capacits, la sensibilisation, lassistance technique, etc. M. Arno Schmid a prsent lassemble le dbat dexperts sur LEurope un modle ? . Il a inform les participants sur son Organisation, la Fdration internationale des architectes paysagistes (IFLA), organisme professionnel qui participe au travail sur les paysages culturels depuis 10 ans. Il a ensuite prsent les experts et les a invits faire de brves dclarations : Mme Maguelonne Djeant-Pons (Conseil de lEurope) a voqu le travail du Conseil de lEurope en gnral, et plus particulirement le volet paysager. A partir dun projet rdig par le Congrs des pouvoirs locaux et rgionaux de lEurope (CPLRE), le Comit des Ministres a dcid en 1999 de crer un petit groupe dexperts charg de rdiger une Convention europenne du paysage, sous lgide du Comit du patrimoine culturel et du Comit pour les activits du Conseil de lEurope en matire de diversit biologique et paysagre. A la suite du travail des experts, le Comit des Ministres a adopt le texte final de la Convention le 19 juillet 2000. La Convention a t ouverte la signature Florence, Italie, le 20 octobre 2000, dans le cadre de la campagne du Conseil de lEurope LEurope, un patrimoine commun . En novembre 2002, 24 Etats lavaient signe et cinq dentre eux, la Norvge, la Moldavie, lIrlande, la Roumanie et la Croatie lont approuve/ratifie. La Convention entrera en vigueur ds quelle sera ratifie par dix Etats signataires. Lobjectif de cette Convention est de renforcer la protection, la gestion et la planification des paysages europens et dorganiser la coopration europenne cette fin. Sa porte est trs vaste et comprend la totalit du territoire des Etats parties pour ce qui est des zones naturelles, urbaines et priurbaines quelles soient terrestres, aquatiques ou marines. Cela ne concerne donc pas uniquement des paysages remarquables, mais aussi des paysages ordinaires de tous les jours et des zones dlabres. Le paysage est par consquent reconnu sans tenir compte de sa valeur exceptionnelle, car toutes les formes de paysage sont essentielles pour la qualit de lenvironnement des habitants et mritent dtre considres dans les politiques gnrales du paysage. De nombreuses zones rurales et aux abords des villes subissent en particulier des transformations radicales et doivent recevoir davantage dattention des autorits et du public. La prochaine confrence est prvue les 28 et 29 novembre 2002 Strasbourg pour encourager les signatures.
Le Pr Mariolina Besio (Universit de Gnes) a fourni des exemples de lexprience acquise sur le site du patrimoine mondial de Cinque Terre, inscrit en 1997 et devenu Parc national en 1999, ce qui a permis de bnficier de nouveaux outils de planification de lenvironnement. Mme Besio a fait remarquer que non seulement les avis des spcialistes de la nature et de la culture diffrent dans linterprtation et la protection du patrimoine paysager, mais galement les avis des habitants. La survie conomique de cette structure paysagre complexe en terrasses est essentielle la fois comme source de revenus pour les habitants mais aussi pour la survie du systme cologique et des habitats ( cause des risques de glissements de terrain). M. Andrea Baldiolo (World Monuments Fund) sest flicit de ce sminaire dont les rflexions essentielles allaient porter sur le traitement de tels paysages. Il a signal que son organisation finanait des projets Cinque Terre pour lentretien des terrasses. Dautres projets pourraient financer des structures similaires lavenir. Mme Carla Maurano (Centre international pour les paysages mditerranens) a inform les participants de la cration de son institution par la Province de Salerne en 1998. Elle a insist sur les liens importants entre lEurope et la rgion arabe travers la Mditerrane et a rpondu la table ronde en dclarant que lEurope nest pas le seul modle. Les deux paysages du patrimoine mondial de la rgion, le Parc national du Cilento et la Cte amalfitaine sont compltement diffrents, un site tant influenc par la culture arabe (le Parc national du Cilento), lautre pas du tout. Une mthodologie pour la gestion de ces sites et une stratgie damnagement doivent tre dbattues. De plus, il faut inclure la notion de patrimoine immatriel et renforcer le savoir traditionnel car nous perdons les moyens dinteraction avec la nature. La formation est essentielle et de nouvelles stratgies de conservation sont fondamentales pour la survie de ces paysages. Mme Jane Lennon (Australie) a fait remarquer que les gens apprcient lhistoire multiforme des paysages culturels car ils illustrent les relations entre le temps, la population et les lieux. La nouvelle dfinition du paysage dans la Convention europenne semble intressante car toutes les influences doivent tre prises en considration, y compris le transfert de patrimoine paysager dorigine europenne. Cest ainsi quon pourrait penser aux sites miniers dAustralie comme aux paysages fossiles dEurope, aux influences anglaises dans les jardins publics avant la Seconde guerre mondiale, et aux jardins japonais de la rconciliation aprs la guerre. La reconnaissance de lart aborigne a entran un changement de valeurs. Lengagement des communauts est essentiel pour le maintien de toutes les valeurs dun site. Mme Miriam Ladet (Mission Val de Loire) a voqu pour les participants le paysage linaire de 280 km de long du Val de Loire, qui couvre 800 km_, compte un million dhabitants et 160 collectivits locales. Un processus novateur de
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gestion de ce paysage du patrimoine mondial a t mis en place. La nouvelle structure comprend une assemble territoriale des autorits locales, un comit damnagement des communauts locales, et la mission Val de Loire. Objectifs principaux : adapter les structures juridiques pour renforcer la sensibilisation, tablir des plans daction et crer un dveloppement conomique adapt pour le site, enfin assurer lexcellence, la qualit et la durabilit. Le dbat a soulign la ncessit dune bonne gestion incluant un organisme de coordination comme la mission Val de Loire. Les dsquilibres entre lEurope et dautres rgions du monde ont t signals : on retrouve le dsquilibre de la Liste du patrimoine mondial dans les catgories daires protges. Ainsi, la catgorie V (paysages terrestres et marins protgs) couvre 66% de toutes les aires protges europennes. En outre, la question suivante sest pose : comment protger les paysages culturels vivants et assurer leur dure pour que les gnrations suivantes puissent les apprcier ? LEurope ne peut tre considre comme un modle en tant que tel, elle doit apprendre partir dautres rgions du monde. Certains paysages illustrent la diversit des cultures et expriment spcifiquement la diversit culturelle de la plante car ils associent le patrimoine matriel et immatriel. La rgion mditerranenne en particulier a model le patrimoine europen avec des influences arabes, grecques et romaines. Avec le transfert du patrimoine paysager, lexemple typique de linterprtation du patrimoine change. Le tourisme ne peut tre la seule solution pour la survie des paysages. Il faut favoriser une approche beaucoup plus large pour inclure les grandes comptences, la technologie et les mthodes de production de la population. Le dbat a galement voqu la diffrence entre les deux modles : la Convention du patrimoine mondial avec ses dfinitions trs prcises des paysages dans les Orientations, et la Convention europenne du paysage o le paysage couvre tout. Toutes deux ncessitent cependant la cration de cadres de gestion. Il faut galement tudier comment les deux conventions pourraient cooprer : le Comit a ralis que lon pourrait allger la pression cause par les pays europens sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial grce ladoption de la Convention europenne du paysage en 2000. Il pourrait exister plusieurs niveaux de reconnaissance. Lexprience europenne peut tre considre comme essentielle car elle est centre sur le grand public qui veut bnficier de paysages de grande qualit. Le Pr Adalbert Vallega (UGI) a inform les participants du travail de lUnion gographique internationale et il a fait quelques remarques donnent penser, indiquant que les lments naturels du paysage sont analyss dans une optique positiviste, alors que les lments culturels sont tudis dans une optique structurelle. Il existe deux perspectives compltement diffrentes : les spcialistes utilisent les paysages, alors que les non-initis utilisent leurs symboles. Il a galement soulign les rsultats du sommet de Johannesburg sur le dveloppement durable, essentiel pour les paysages culturels.
12 novembre 2002
La sance sur les expriences rgionales a t prsente par lAmbassadeur Joseph Yai (Bnin), qui a dclar quil fallait tudier srieusement les problmes de gestion et les questions lies aux rencontres et changes entre diffrentes cultures.
Rgion arabe
Le Pr Pietro Laureano (Centre de Matera sur la dsertification) a expliqu que cration dun systme dirrigation et doasis illustre lextraordinaire crativit humaine. Les petites dpressions attirent les plantes qui, leur tour, crent de lombre et attirent dautres organismes. Cela est parfois cr artificiellement par lhomme. Le systme complexe de lirrigation a t cr non seulement pour retenir et transporter leau, mais aussi dans un but de climatisation. Loasis est un microcosme qui ncessite une approche globale de la durabilit. Lurbanisme fond sur le paysage et les conditions environnementales ne peut tre compris que dans ce contexte, qui convient aux approches de conservation intgre (comme Ptra, Sanaa, etc.). Le savoir traditionnel fournit un nouvel exemple caractristique de durabilit au fil du temps, durabilit que lon retrouve galement dans la spiritualit et les symboles des peuples. Le Pr Ali Gaballa Gaballa (Egypte) a fait un bref compte rendu des rsultats du sminaire sur les paysages dsertiques et les systmes doasis, organis dans la partie occidentale du dsert dEgypte en 2001. Lapparition des hominids en Afrique orientale a galement t lorigine du nomadisme dans le dsert. Les dserts de la rgion arabe et dAfrique sont donc rvlateurs des origines des cultures humaines. On a retrouv des tmoignages depuis le Maroc jusquen Egypte travers lart rupestre et les dcouvertes archologiques qui attestent dune civilisation fonde sur llevage, la culture et le peuplement des oasis. La civilisation gyptienne vient donc du dsert ce dont tmoignent galement les routes commerciales du Sahara occidental. Ms Carla Maurano (Centre international pour les paysages culturels) a inform les participants dun nouveau programme de formation pour les gestionnaires de sites de la rgion arabe, mis en place au Parc national du Cilento. La formation des enseignants et des gestionnaires est essentielle pour la gestion intgre des paysages mais elle est rarement traite par lenseignement universitaire traditionnel et autres programmes de formation. Il faut prendre en compte le patrimoine matriel aussi bien quimmatriel. Tel est lobjectif de la Charte de Paestum (voir Annexe). Elle a propos que le Centre du Cilento joue un rle de coordonnateur dactivits de formation de ce genre, dans le cadre des partenariats du patrimoine mondial. Le dbat anim qui a suivi a insist sur limportance du savoir-faire technique et traditionnel et sur son transfert
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dune culture lautre. Par ailleurs, lassemble sest interroge sur la question dun possible gaspillage des efforts de conservation car de nombreux sites ne sont pas vus dans le contexte et le cadre de leur paysage. Il faudrait tudier dautres paysages dsertiques y compris en Asie ou des dserts glacs dans les rgions polaires.
continuer sur les rseaux de paysages et les diffrentes approches du dveloppement. Au cours du dbat, il a t rappel que les Orientations allaient tre modifies pour mettre fin la division entre patrimoine naturel et culturel en unifiant les critres en un ensemble unique. Il a aussi t dclar que nous ne sommes peut-tre pas prts traiter de structures aussi complexes que les paysages culturels vu la complexit de leurs ressources et la ncessit de sadresser des professionnels. En termes de partenariats, il faut intensifier la recherche et la formation sur les paysages culturels.
Asie et Pacifique
M. Graeme Calma (Australie) a prsent le cas dUluru Kata Tjuta, site inscrit sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial, dabord pour ses valeurs naturelles, puis ensuite (en 1994), comme paysage culturel. Le paysage du Parc national dUluru-Kata Tjuta rsulte en grande partie de milliers dannes de gestion selon les mthodes traditionnelles des Anangu rgies par Tjukurpa (la loi). Pour les Anangu, le monde a t cr au commencement du temps par des tres qui sont leurs anctres directs les Tjukuritia et ils ont toujours vcu l. Toutes les personnes et organisations concernes par le fonctionnement du Parc national sont obliges de prendre en considration la loi et les intrts anangu et piranpa (non-aborignes). Le Conseil de gestion, constitu de membres aborignes et non aborignes, a fix les orientations de politique gnrale pour le Parc. Les propritaires traditionnels ont des droits et des responsabilits par rapport aux sites du pays, aux autres Anangu lis comme eux la terre, et aux tres ancestraux auxquels sont associs les sites et les pistes. Prendre soin de la terre est aussi une responsabilit qui comporte dimportantes obligations envers les gnrations actuelles et futures. Parks Australia, le service australien des Parcs, est galement concern par cette obligation. Mme Jane Lennon (Australie) a inform les participants dautres cas en Australie, dont la Zone de nature sauvage de Tasmanie, o dans le cadre du suivi de ltat du site et dune nouvelle recherche, la question suivante sest pose : quand un paysage naturel devient-il culturel sur un site habit depuis 31 000 ans ? De nombreux sites pourraient tre de nouveau proposs pour inscription en tant que paysages culturels, bien quil faille alors rgler de nouveaux problmes de gestion. M. Makoto Motonaka (Japon) a prsent des tudes de cas dAsie, notamment des montagnes sacres, et il a voqu une runion de lUNESCO organise au Japon en 2001. Le concept de paysages culturels sapplique aux montagnes sacres car elles incarnent la signification spirituelle dun lieu. Les pratiques culturelles traditionnelles englobent le patrimoine matriel aussi bien quimmatriel. La question de lauthenticit et de lintgrit des paysages culturels reste galement traiter. M. Motonaka a aussi donn des dtails sur le cas des Rizires en terrasses des
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Philippines, site emblmatique pour les paysages culturels du patrimoine mondial, la fois lchelle mondiale et comme site de premire importance pour les rizires en terrasses dAsie. La durabilit de tels sites doit cependant tre examine en fonction des changements conomiques mondiaux et des changements sociaux locaux. Lors du dbat qui a suivi, les participants ont soulign luniversalit de valeurs spirituelles de toutes les rgions du monde, et de caractristiques communes. Les cultures autochtones sont galement menaces dans de nombreuses rgions du monde. Il faut mener une recherche sur les tmoignages de linteraction humaine afin de ne pas tomber dans le pige de la prsentation des paysages culturels et des cultures traditionnelles sous un jour romantique.
Afrique
M. Dawson Munjeri (Zimbabwe) a prsent une vue densemble complte de la situation des paysages culturels en Afrique et a dgag plusieurs tudes de cas. La question des menaces qui psent sur les cultures traditionnelles et les synergies nature/culture dans les socits africaines doivent tre prises en considration. Les paysages culturels, par leur nature mme, sont une expression de linteraction entre la population et lenvironnement naturel qui reflte des techniques prcises dutilisation durable des terres tenant compte des caractristiques et des limites de lenvironnement naturel . Ils constituent, par extension, un microcosme du panorama mondial quont prsent les diffrents sommets de Rio, Kyoto, Johannesburg et autres. Ces scnarios devraient inclure des processus ngocis entre population et nature, aussi bien quau sein de la population concerne. Pour lAfrique, du moins, cest une condition sine qua non. Qui plus est, les systmes de croyances africaines nont pas revendiqu le monopole de lme la seule espce humaine. Un arbre, un rocher, une montagne, un plan deau, un serpent, etc. peuvent mriter le respect dans la cosmologie africaine. La vracit dune telle assertion est atteste par le fait qu ce jour, tous les paysages culturels africains figurant sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial notamment Sukur (Nigeria), Drakensburg/Ukhahlamba (Afrique du Sud), Tsodilo (Botswana), les Tombes de Kasubi (Ouganda) et la Colline royale dAmbohimanga (Madagascar) possdent dimportantes valeurs traditionnelles et spirituelles. La continuit des traditions et des systmes qui les maintiennent reste la cl des paysages culturels africains. Enfin, cest aussi une question dengagement de tous les acteurs concerns. Il est primordial que cela commence par les populations rsidantes et leurs besoins sociaux, conomiques et culturels. Cela implique un systme de partenariats fond sur une lgislation, une politique gnrale et des pratiques qui reconnaissent que ce sont les populations rsidantes qui ont contribu modeler le paysage culturel. Au nom de M. Joseph Eboreime et de M. Akin Liasu (Nigeria) retards par des problmes logistiques, M. Munjeri a galement expliqu le cas de Sukur au Nigeria, premier paysage culturel dAfrique inscrit sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial. Situ dans les Monts Mandara, le site comprend un plateau dominant les collines caractristiques de la rgion nigriano-camerounaise. Sukur est habit depuis des sicles et spcialis dans la production et la diffusion du travail du fer. Les habitants se rassemblent dans une institution pyramidale qui fait partie du palais de granit de Hindi, la femme symbolique et collective qui veille sur la communaut de Sukur. Outre le palais, le site comprend des enceintes en pierre coniques pour le btail (que lon engraisse pour certaines crmonies), des fours pour la production du fer, des champs en terrasses qui composent un paysage spectaculaire dot de nombreux lments spirituels (arbres sacrs, portes, tombes, etc.). Le site de Sukur incarne toute la diversit et la complexit des paysages culturels africains : il associe des caractristiques
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associatives, technologiques et agricoles qui constituent lhistoire de la vie passe et actuelle de toute une communaut sur plusieurs sicles. Mme Synnove Vinsrygg (Fondation nordique du patrimoine mondial) a expos des problmes rsoudre ultrieurement, en particulier le financement et la rationalisation, en sappuyant sur une tude de cas tire dun projet de la Banque mondiale. La Banque suit une nouvelle orientation et utilise des tudes dimpact sur lenvironnement. Un rcent atelier panafricain sest tenu Kimberly (Afrique du Sud) et a prsent des perspectives et des menaces en matire de conservation. Des projets de suivi apporter et de coopration dans le domaine de la prservation des paysages en Afrique peuvent maintenant tre mis en place entre lUNESCO et la Banque mondiale. Certains projets en cours pourront servir de modles dans lavenir si lexprience acquise, comme pour le dveloppement communautaire, peut tre mise en pratique. Le dbat qui a suivi a montr que la Banque mondiale avait modifi son approche du patrimoine culturel et des questions lies au paysage. Il a galement trait des clarifications conceptuelles concernant les paysages culturels dans le contexte africain, certaines propositions dinscription ne spcifiant pas si un site tait un paysage culturel, un site funraire ou un parc archologique. Cela a dimportantes implications pour la reconnaissance des valeurs qui justifient linscription du site, et sur sa gestion intgre.
reconnatre la complexit que reprsente le traitement des paysages et les difficults dune intgration de cette notion dans des cadres juridiques. 2. O trouver cette notion ? On trouve des paysages sur tout le territoire europen ; ils sont mentionns pour la premire fois dans le droit danois autour de 1880, essentiellement par rapport aux forts. Vers 1900, il est fait rfrence certains aspects du paysage et de la beaut, souvent dans des zones de montagnes il sagit alors de la cration de centrales hydrolectriques. Des questions de nature transfrontalire et la protection des zones tampons des aires panoramiques ont galement t abordes. Le concept de territoire dpend du cadre juridique particulier. Dans les pays africains, une lgislation a t tablie par les pouvoirs colonisateurs et les administrateurs europens, essentiellement pour diviser les territoires et protger certaines zones des communauts locales. Ces communauts taient souvent divises en plusieurs circonscriptions, comme cela a t le cas des Massa du Kenya. Les lgislations nationales ont des perceptions de la porte territoriale, ce qui met en exergue un grand problme car il est difficile de trouver des accords de cogestion pour les communauts locales des paysages culturels qui se trouvent sur des territoires administratifs diffrents. La question de la gouvernance et la dfinition des limites semblent essentielles. 3. Qui est concern ? Dans le contexte europen, ce sont les pouvoirs publics et le grand public qui sont concerns. Toutefois, les paysages culturels constituent dabord des questions de patrimoine local, puis de patrimoine universel. La population doit donc participer tous les processus lis au paysage et sa gestion. Les paysages culturels semblent tre importants dans le contexte africain car ils focalisent les techniques traditionnelles. Les groupes ethniques reprsentent plus que la somme des membres pris individuellement. Cest un concept difficile pour les Etats nations car il aborde des questions de droits fonciers et de systmes dautorit communautaire. Sagissant par exemple des Tombes de Kasubi, la communaut locale est lentit globale qui traite toutes les questions de gestion. Il faut donc permettre aux communauts locales de participer toutes les prises de dcisions, y compris au classement au patrimoine mondial. 4. Comment grer les paysages culturels ? La Convention demande chaque Etat partie de prendre les mesures juridiques et autres qui sont adquates. Cela implique diffrents lments tels que des orientations pour des mesures juridiques nationales. Dans le cas des aires protges, cest souvent spcifique, mais ce nest pas bien adapt pour les paysages culturels. Quelles pourraient tre les mesures juridiques adquates ? Il ne pourrait sagir que dun cadre territorial, sans cadre institutionnel. Le droit collectif europen comporte des directives pour des valuations dimpact stratgiques. Dans le contexte africain, cela est souvent couvert par la gestion traditionnelle et le droit coutumier appliqus par les communauts et leurs anciens. La gestion est souvent inadapte et les commu-
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nauts locales ont t alines de leur paysage culturel. Dans lapplication de la lgislation, il faut tenir compte des perceptions des communauts locales pour une bonne gestion du paysage. Le Prsident a remerci les deux juristes pour la qualit de ce dialogue, un des plus passionnants dbats du sminaire, alors que les deux intervenants se rencontraient pour la premire fois cet atelier sur les paysages culturels. Par ailleurs, cet entretien a bien montr lassemble les immenses difficults que posent la conservation, la gestion et la protection juridique des paysages. Ce parallle entre les dispositions juridiques europennes concernant les paysages culturels, et le droit coutumier africain et la protection traditionnelle a non seulement mis en lumire les questions aborder prochainement, mais a aussi fourni de nouvelles perspectives et une vision pour lavenir, sans crainte daborder les problmes passs comme lhritage colonial. Le Prsident a ensuite remerci les participants de leur contribution et le Secrtariat de lUNESCO de son assistance pour la rdaction des projets de conclusions, dbattus par les prsidents et participants au cours de la journe. Ces conclusions ont ensuite t prsentes la confrence de presse.
Le Pr Paolo Ceccarelli, au nom du Prsident de lUniversit, a inform les participants dune surprise : lUniversit venait de crer un Centre pour les paysages culturels loccasion de latelier du patrimoine mondial. Mme Francesca Leder (Universit de Ferrare), a appris lassemble que son Centre avait t cr la suite dune confrence prliminaire intitule Ferrara Paesaggio en 2001. Ce Centre allait non seulement privilgier la recherche mais aussi la formation universitaire et le renforcement des capacits, et constituer une tribune pour la coopration internationale, importante pour la protection des paysages. Les participants ont ensuite ft la clture du sminaire avec des produits de la Province de Ferrare.
13 novembre 2002
La visite sur le terrain a t centre sur les paysages conus intentionnellement du site du patrimoine mondial de Ferrare, avec une visite de Belriguardo Vighiera. Ce paysage perdu de parcs et de jardins est devenu agricole, avec pour seuls vestiges la Sala delle Vigne et des traces visibles sur des photos ariennes. A Portomaggiore, les participants ont pu voir le Castello del Verginese. Une promenade en bateau a suivi pour admirer le paysage culturel vivant de la pche, dans laire protge du Delta du P, puis le paysage relique des traditions de la pche languille Comacchio (Museo delle Valli). Lexcursion sest termine Venise, o de nombreux participants staient inscrits la confrence internationale Hritage partag responsabilit commune .
Confrence de presse publique et clture du sminaire au thtre de Ferrare Le Pr Adrian Philips, au nom des participants, a prsent les conclusions des ateliers. Il a inform lassemble quelles constitueraient une partie des clbrations du 30e anniversaire de la Convention Venise et seraient prsentes par le Rapporteur M. Dawson Munjeri, du Zimbabwe. Mme Mechtild Rssler, au nom de lUNESCO, a remerci les autorits de la Ville et de la Province de Ferrare pour leur merveilleuse hospitalit et leur contribution la prservation des paysages culturels. Elle a dclar que la nouvelle vision de la protection des paysages culturels pour les dix ans venir avait t dfinie Ferrare et serait communique tous les Etats parties la Convention. Le Prsident de la Province de Ferrare, M. Pier Giorgio Dall'Acqua, a remerci tous les participants de leur venue Ferrare et dans sa Province, ainsi que des conclusions du sminaire. Il a dclar que les autorits feraient tout pour concrtiser cette vision dans la Province et son paysage culturel du patrimoine mondial, et pour traiter les problmes de gestion de faon exemplaire. Le reprsentant du Maire a exprim sa satisfaction des rsultats de latelier. Il a indiqu que les autorits allaient les tudier en dtail, soulignant en particulier que la ville avait dj pris en considration la notion de durabilit long terme.
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Annexes
1. List of Participants 2. European Landscape Convention 3. Paestum Charta 4. Photographs from the Workshop and Field Trip
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Annex 1
List of Participants
Mr. Andrea BALDIOLO World Monuments Fund, European Office Paris FRANCE Ms. Mariolina BESIO Professor Universit degli Studi di Genova Genova ITALY Ms. Susan BUGGEY Adjunct Professor, cole darchitecture de paysage Universit de Montral. CANADA Mr. Graeme CALMA Chairperson, Mutitjulu Community Council Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park Yulara Northern Territory AUSTRALIA Mr. Armando CARBONELL Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Cambridge MA USA Prof. Paolo CECCARELLI Facolt di Archtettura Universit di Ferrara Ferrara ITALY Mr. Dawson MUNJERI Deputy Permanent Delegate of Zimbabwe to UNESCO, France ZIMBABWE Ms Mireille DECONINCK Attache Direction de l'Amnagement rgional Jambes BELGIQUE
Ms. Maguelonne DJEANT-PONS Council of Europe Head of the Regional Planning and Technical Co-operation and Assistance Division Secretary of the European Landscape Convention DG IV- Council of Europe/ Conseil de lEurope Strasbourg FRANCE Ms. Christine DELSOL Assistant, Europe and North America Unit UNESCO World Heritage Centre FRANCE Dr Joseph EBOREIME1 Deputy Director Ministry of Culture and Tourism ABUJA PMB 171 NIGERIA Prof. Paola FALINI Rome ITALY Ms Carmen Anon FELIU ICOMOS International Paris, France SPAIN Prof. Peter FOWLER World Heritage Consultant London UNITED KINGDOM Dr. Ali GABALLA Professor of Egyptology Faculty of Archaeology Cairo University Advisor to the Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture Cairo EGYPT Arch. Manuel Roberto GUIDO Direzione generale architettura e Art contemporanee Ministero per I Beni e le Attivit culturali Rome ITALY
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Annex 1
Ms. Myriam LAIDET Charge de mission Mission Val de Loire FRANCE Prof. Pietro LAUREANO Faculty of Architecture Polytechnic of Bari Matera ITALY Mrs. Francesca LEDERER Facolt di Archtettura Universit di Ferrara Ferrara ITALY Ms. Jane LENNON Adjunct Professor University Queensland AUSTRALIA Mr. S. Akin LIASU* Assistant Director Ministry of Culture and Tourism ABUJA PMB 171 NIGERIA Ms. Katri LISITZIN ICCROM Rome, Italy SWEDEN Prof. Carlos LLOP Universidad Politecnica de Cataluniy ETSAB SPAIN Dr. Carla MAURANO Director International Centre for Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes Agropoli ITALY Arch. Maria Angela MANZONI Project Manager C/o Aler-Milano ITALY Ms. Nora J. MITCHELL* Adjunct faculty School of Natural Resources at the University of Vermont U.S.A.
Dr. Makoto MOTONAKA Chief Senior Specialist for Cultural Properties Monuments and Sites Division Cultural Properties Department Agency for Cultural Affairs Tokyo JAPAN Mr. Elias J MUJICA Deputy Coordinator Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecorregin Andina (CONDESAN) International Potatoe Centre Lima PERU Dr. Albert MUMMA Faculty of Law University of Nairobi KENYA Ms. Meryl OLIVER Heritage Consultant Rome, Italy CANADA Mr. Adrian PHILLIPS IUCN Senior Advisor on World Heritage UNITED KINGDOM Prof. Ricard PIE Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya ETSAB SPAIN Prof. Michel PRIEUR Directeur du Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaires en Droit de lEnvironnement et lAmnagement et de lUrbanisme (CRIDEAU) Universit de Limoge Limoges FRANCE Ms. Ann PULVER Conservation Planner Aga Khan Trust for Culture Rome ITALY Dr. Mechtild RSSLER Chief, Europe and North America Unit UNESCO World Heritage Centre Paris FRANCE Ms. Giovanna ROSSI Ministerio dell'Ambiente Rome ITALY
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Annex 1
Prof. Joaquin SABATE Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya ETSAB Barcelona SPAIN Prof. Dr. Onofre Alcntara SAUL Universidad Autonomia Metropolitana Tlalnepantla MEXICO Prof. Lionella SCAZZOSI University Politecnico di Milano Milano ITALY Mr Arno SCHMID IFLA Leonberg GERMANY Mr Severpaolo TAGLIASACCHI The Foundation for Eco-Management, Research, Global Utilities and Strategies (FERGUS) FERGUS Administrator Perugia ITALY Mr. Pierre-Marie TRICAUD Institut dAmnagement et dUrbanisme de la Rgion dle-de-France (IAURIF) Paris FRANCE Mr. Robin TURNER NTS Senior Archaeologist Edinburgh UNITED KINGDOM
Prof. Adalberto VALLEGA IGU University of Genoa Faculty of Architecture Department Polis-Stradone 5 Genoa ITALY Ms. Synnove VINSRYGG Senior Advisor Nordic World Heritage Foundation Oslo NORWAY Dr. Arno WEINMANN Deutsche Bundersstiftung Umwelt (DBU) Osnabrck GERMANY Exc. M. Olabiyi Babalola Joseph YA Ambassadeur, Dlgu permanent Dlgation permanente du Bnin auprs de l'UNESCO, France BENIN Dott.ssa Elisa ZAFFI Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rome ITALY
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Annex 2
The full text and explanatory notes of the European Landscape Convention is available from the web-page of the Council of Europe in different language versions: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Word/176.doc
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Annex 3
Paestum Charta
In order to reach the above objectives, it is suggested: 1. that legislative actions be taken to support the new strategic option of integrated management. 2. that the institutions in charge of the protection and development of the Mediterranean countries create technical training centres capable of enhancing capacity building skills in the multidisciplinary groups responsible for site management. 3. that IT and media networks be constructed and implemented which shall incorporate individual sites in a macro-Mediterranean dimension. It is desirable that Euro-Mediterranean partnerships be extended to the fields of culture and enhancement and management of our integrated Heritage. Therefore, the Province of Salerno - also in view of the experience gained by the working group engaged in the Project Knowledge, Enhancement and Management of the Intangible Heritage of the Coast of Amalfi shall act as a Mediterranean coordination unit that will be committed to further probe into the theories underpinning the issues depicted in this Charter and coordinate any initiative that may stem from it.
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Annex 4
Elias Mujica
Dawson Munjeri and Adrian Phillips presenting the results of the Ferrara workshop to the Venice conference
Elias Mujica
Elias Mujica
Elias Mujica
The Ferrara group after having presented the workshops conclusions at a press conference in the Theatre of Ferrara
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