scholarly journals Sergiu Musteata, Past for the Future and Future for the Past: Preservation and Promotion of the World Heritage Sites. An introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8

Cultural Heritage is a common resource of people across the world, representing humanity’s relationship with the past and its traditions. Cultural heritage is diverse, and people have a common responsibility to understand and safeguard it for future generations (cf. ICOMOS, Venice Charter 1964). The UNESCO, Council of Europe and other international organizations have adopted several conventions in the area of cultural heritage preservation that set common rules and standards. All signatory countries have accordingly accepted to establish efficient management of and to safeguard the cultural heritage. As such, cultural heritage emerges as a key element of individual and social well-being, and its protection, management and planning entail rights and responsibilities for everyone.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ali Mohamed Khalil ◽  
Eman Hanye Mohamed Nasr

PurposeThe study aims to analyze the development of Omani heritage legislation against the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (WHC), 1972 and WHC Operational Guidelines (WHC-OGs) to predict the possible effects of the recent developments on the management of the World Heritage Site in Oman.Design/methodology/approachThis study discusses the development of the heritage protection legislation in Sultanate of Oman since 1970; it analyses the Omani Cultural Heritage Law 35/2019 against the recommendations of the UNESCO WHC as well as the requirements of the World Heritage Operational Guidelines. Moreover, the research investigates the possible effects of the recent heritage legislation developments on the management of Bahla Fort and Oasis in Oman, which is the first Omani World Heritage Site and the only site with special management regulations.FindingsThe paper outlines the effects of both the Omani Cultural Heritage Law 35/2019 and the Special Management Regulations 81/2019 on the implementation of the Bahla Management Plan. Additionally, the research establishes how the customization of heritage legislation as a special heritage management regulation facilitates the implementation of national legislation to solve specific local problems.Originality/valueThe study establishes the significance of developing comprehensive legislation to protect and manage the rich Omani cultural heritage and World Heritage Sites in alignment with the WHC and the WHC-OGs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh B. Martin

Abstract Despite growing recognition of the global value of underwater cultural heritage (uch), along with intensified international efforts to ensure its protection, the possibility of its inscription on the World Heritage List has never been comprehensively examined. Arguing that the unesco 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (uch Convention) is insufficient alone to protect globally outstanding wrecks, such as the Titanic and the Lusitania, this article examines in detail the many legal and practical challenges involved with listing such sites under the World Heritage Convention. By reviewing key international agreements such as the uch Convention, World Heritage Convention, Law of the Sea Convention and the International Titanic Agreement, it draws the conclusion that it is the improved offshore management of uch—through ‘cultural’ marine protected areas operating under the framework of the uch Convention—which would open the possibility of nomination to the World Heritage List.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004728752098762
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Yi ◽  
Xiaoxiao Fu ◽  
Vera Shanshan Lin ◽  
Honggen Xiao

Authenticity, well-being, and memorability are essential to understanding tourist experience, yet little is known about the mechanism underlying these interrelated concepts. This study explores how tourists’ perceived authenticity influences memorability through their existential authenticity and well-being in the context of heritage tourism. Using data from visitors to two world heritage sites in China (West Lake and Lijiang), the effects of existential authenticity on tourists’ psychological and subjective well-being are empirically tested. Findings from cross-regional surveys reveal that existential authenticity, triggered by tourists’ perceived authenticity of local cultural heritage, is significantly associated with memorability and psychological and subjective well-being. Results further show that perceived authenticity of local cultural heritage contributes to memorability through existential authenticity and well-being. Elucidation of these conceptual relationships has theoretical and practical implications for heritage tourism studies and management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (48) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Krajnović ◽  
Ivona Vrdoljak Raguz ◽  
Ivana Paula Gortan-Carlin

AbstractThis paper studies the protected cultural property strategic management conducted by UNESCO, the World Heritage Sites (WHS). Its purpose is to explore the measure to which the system of such cultural property management is developed, since its meaning goes beyond the touristic purpose and indicates the world’s cultural property. Two Croatian tourist destinations are examined – Dubrovnik and Poreč. At the end of the paper, a comparative analysis of the two investigated cases is presented with the aim of presenting the research results and designing a personal model and conceptual frame of action to create a more efficient management system for protected heritage at all levels


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Marwick ◽  
Prema Smith

UNESCO World Heritage sites are places of outstanding significance, and often key sources of information that influence how people interact with the past today. The process of inscription on the UNESCO list is complicated and intersects with political and commercial controversies. But how well are these controversies known to the public? Wikipedia pages on these sites offer a unique dataset for insights into public understanding of heritage controversies. The unique technicity of Wikipedia, with its bot ecosystem and editing mechanics, shapes how knowledge about cultural heritage is constructed, and how controversies are negotiated and communicated. In this article we investigate the patterns of production, consumption and spatial and temporal distributions of Wikipedia pages for World Heritage cultural sites. We find that Wikipedia provides a distinctive context for investigating how people experience and relate to the past in the present. The agency of participants is highly constrained, but distinctive, behind-the-scenes expressions of cultural heritage activism are evident. Concerns about state-like actors, violence and destruction, deal-making, etc. in the World Heritage inscription process are present, but rare on Wikipedia’s World Heritage pages. Instead hyper-local, and process issues dominate controversies on Wikipedia. We describe how this kind of research, drawing on big data and data science methods, contributes to digital heritage studies, and also reveals its limitations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 18-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Олег Афанасьев ◽  
Oleg Afanasiev

The article discusses the concept of “agrоcultural (agricultural) heritage” and composing it objects in rural (agricultural) tourism, for which they are the most important destinations. This research object is interdisciplinary, affecting a variety of spheres, particularly, agroourism, sightseeing, services and so forth, and economy in general. Agricultural heritage includes tangible objects of agricultural and technical culture, created for the production. Such objects are saved for better and complete study and understanding of their nature, not for contemplation; they are not works of art. This heritage is anthropogenic and technological. From the scientific and methodological point of view the very understanding of the term of "agricultural heritage" is still quite uncertain. The article presents a comprehensive understanding of it based on the nature-use concept as a binary object system "Man - Nature". The available experience of classification of agricultural heritage objects is considered. Starting 2002, at the initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the criteria are developed and an inventory of objects of the world agro- cultural heritage, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), is conducted. One of the GIAHS goals is identifying objects of agricultural heritage that are most corresponding to the status of "global agricultural heritage" and their promotion for including to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The article presents for the first time ever full GIAHS list in Russian as of October, 2016. We have separated in special list 114 objects from 58 countries, corresponding in our view to the concept of "agricultural heritage" from the UNESCO World Heritage List current at the end of 2016. The article presets the attempt to classify them by 12 categories. The rating of countries in the world by the number of Agricultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites is submitted. The author notes that exactly this category of objects forms a primary resource base for the agricultural (rural) tourism development as the most important attractive destinations, especially in Europe. As the conclusions the reasons are formulated, under which agricultural tourism is a promising form of tourism organization both for individual agricultural enterprises on the basis of objects of agricultural heritage, and for the regions in which these objects are presented.


Author(s):  
G. Fangi

Syria is a country of many civilizations, Marie, Aramaic, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Ottoman civilizations. Unfortunally the recent war is the reason for many cultural heritage items to be destroyed, beyond the thausand civilian people killed. In 2010, just before the war, the A. made a touristic trip together with Crua (Recreational Club of the Ancona University). It was the occasion to make some fast documentation of some Syrian CH monuments. Mostly of the images were taken by the A. not to make a survey, but as a photographic report, as fast and complete as possible. For a regular survey project, the tripod, the spherical head should be used for the takings and the 3x3 Cipa rules should be followed, that occurred only in the three main projects, say the survey of the citadel walls in Aleppo, the survey of the Umayyads Mosque in Damascus, and the survey of the minaret of the Umayyads Mosque in Aleppo. All the other documentation surveys have been carried out with hand-held camera taking the dimension of the model from Google earth high resolution, when available. But, apart the regular surveys, due to the explosion of the unexpected war, the photographs taken in such a touristic way, have been used to try to get some usable plottings an restitutions and it worked successfully mostly of the times. These surveys could be useful in case of reconstruction and in case of lack of suitable alternative metric documentation. Because of the continuing threats, all six Syrian World Heritage properties were inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, at the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Cambodia last June: Ancient City of Aleppo, Ancient City of Bosra, Ancient City of Damascus, Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, Krak des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din ans finally the Site of Palmyra. See the following links: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kr.a3e0DL5sA"target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kr.a3e0DL5sA</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFFjjrUgtU"target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFFjjrUgtU</a>. Apart the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, the A. visited all the World Heritage sites and partly documented. Some of them have already been plotted, some are in the orientation stage, some have been documented only.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Saowalux Poshyanandana

Serial cultural heritage is a category of cultural heritage that is characterized by its formation of several cultural heritage sites which have shared meaning and values. The first recognition of serial cultural heritage was part of the World Heritage Convention and its subsequent Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, 1980. Since that time, cultural heritage series have been nominated and inscribed as World Heritage Sites continuously.               In general context, serial cultural heritage has been known and remembered since ancient times. Seven Wonders of the World is an example, although they are not called ‘serial cultural heritage’.               This article addresses the concept and other important aspects of serial cultural heritage in World Heritage and general contexts for better understanding of this category of cultural heritage that has been overlooked most of the time despite its values and significance in today’s world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-242

Since 1972 UNESCO has established a frame of protection for cultural and natural heritage (Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) and the “World Heritage List”, which it considers as having outstanding universal value. In 1994, at the Nara Conference, the Document on Authenticity was established, stating that “the protection and enhancement of cultural and heritage diversity in our world should be actively promoted as an essential aspect of human development”. Today, many factors affect the authenticity and integrity of cultural heritage: intensive tourism, excessive restoration works, new inappropriate investments or uncorrelated private interventions, etc. The debates on cultural heritage research, preservation and management have increased in recent years as the effect of UNESCO standards, namely to establish “an effective system of collective protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, organized on a permanent basis and in accordance with modern scientific methods”. The problem of preservation, management, and promotion of heritage is of crucial importance from many points of views: scientific, technologic, socio-economic, and cultural.


Author(s):  
Walter Jamieson ◽  
Richard Engelhardt

There has been very little documentation of the Asian experience in planning and managing urban heritage areas, especially those experiencing tourism pressures. In order to better understand the challenges in these areas, 47 case examples have been authored by experienced practitioners who have worked in Asia over the past two decades in the areas of heritage conservation and/or cultural heritage tourism. The issues discussed in the case examples are those that the practitioners have identified as being of particular relevance to the heritage and sustainable tourism debate. Combined, these case examples provide geographic breadth and longitudinal depth, offering a comprehensive and credible body of data. In this chapter the case examples relate to heritage, which encompasses issues such as authenticity, integrity, heritage impact, historic urban landscapes, intangible heritage, tangible heritage and World Heritage sites.


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