Protected Areas in a neoliberal world and the role of tourism in supporting conservation and sustainable development: an assessment of strategic planning, zoning, impact monitoring, and tourism management at natural World Heritage Sites

AbstractThe paper deals with the relationship between the presence of world heritage sites in a country and the volume of international tourist arrivals and international tourism receipts. World heritage sites are unique tourist attractions with enhanced attention paid to their protection, preservation and sustainability. The paper analyses whether the needs of sustainability can be harmonised with the requirements of a profitable and successful tourism sector, by statistical analysis of data about world heritage sites and tourism performance, for 129 countries of the world from 2014 to 2017. The results show that both cultural and natural world heritage sites are generally strong attractions for tourists and can contribute to increased arrivals and receipts. Cultural sites were found to have higher impact on arrivals, while natural heritage sites seemed to have more impact on receipts, which suggest, that visitors of natural world heritage sites are usually higher spenders, than tourists visiting cultural sites. Countries widely differ, however, in this respect by their geographical locations. Countries in Europe and Latin-America & the Caribbean region benefit most from cultural world heritage sites, while African, and North American countries experienced the benefits of natural world heritage sites more. The general level of development measured by per capita GNI also mattered for the less developed areas, but not so much for developed regions that possess a suitable level of infrastructure, health and education, and living standards.

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Adaptive Heritage: Is This Creative Thinking or Abandoning Our Values?

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli9080128 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 128

Author(s):

Jim Perry ◽

Iain J. Gordon

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Creative Thinking ◽

Monitoring And Evaluation ◽

Natural World ◽

Biosphere Reserves ◽

World Heritage Sites ◽

Heritage Sites ◽

The Face ◽

Wet Tropics ◽

Natural World Heritage Sites

Protected areas, such as natural World Heritage sites, RAMSAR wetlands and Biosphere Reserves, are ecosystems within landscapes. Each site meets certain criteria that allow it to qualify as a heritage or protected area. Both climate change and human influence (e.g., incursion, increased tourist visitation) are altering biophysical conditions at many such sites. As a result, conditions at many sites are falling outside the criteria for their original designation. The alternatives are to change the criteria, remove protection from the site, change site boundaries such that the larger or smaller landscape meets the criteria, or manage the existing landscape in some way that reduces the threat. This paper argues for adaptive heritage, an approach that explicitly recognizes changing conditions and societal value. We discuss the need to view heritage areas as parts of a larger landscape, and to take an adaptive approach to the management of that landscape. We offer five themes of adaptive heritage: (1) treat sites as living heritage, (2) employ innovative governance, (3) embrace transparency and accountability, (4) invest in monitoring and evaluation, and (5) manage adaptively. We offer the Australian Wet Tropics as an example where aspects of adaptive heritage currently are practiced, highlighting the tools being used. This paper offers guidance supporting decisions about natural heritage in the face of climate change and non-climatic pressures. Rather than delisting or lowering standards, we argue for adaptive approaches.

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Multi-decadal shoreline change in coastal natural world heritage sites – a global assessment

Environmental Research Letters ◽

10.1088/1748-9326/ab968f ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (10) ◽

pp. 104047 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Salma Sabour ◽

Sally Brown ◽

Robert J Nicholls ◽

Ivan D Haigh ◽

Arjen P Luijendijk

Keyword(s):

Global Assessment ◽

Shoreline Change ◽

World Heritage ◽

Natural World ◽

World Heritage Sites ◽

Heritage Sites ◽

Natural World Heritage Sites

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Stakeholders' consciousness of cultural heritage and the reconciliation of different needs for sustainable development

Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development ◽

10.1108/jchmsd-10-2020-0156 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Selena Aureli ◽

Mara Del Baldo

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Unesco World Heritage ◽

Content Type ◽

World Heritage Sites ◽

Heritage Sites ◽

Italian City

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the approach and tools adopted by an Italian city, included amongst the UNESCO World Heritage sites (WHS), to involve different stakeholders in the protection and valorisation of its historical centre to achieve the goals of sustainable development. The paper focusses on the role of local authorities as the key actors that should engage different city users to jointly achieve heritage conservation and socio-economic development.Design/methodology/approachData were collected, thanks to the researchers' direct participation in a project launched by the municipality of Urbino, which involved several local stakeholders and lasted about a year. Participant observation allowed the authors to collect informal interviews, join collective discussions and reflect on the direct observation of the activities undertaken.FindingsThe case study analysed suggests how participatory governance may be effective in fostering responsible principles in “asset usage” by any type of city users and how citizens actively co-design and co-implement initiatives of heritage revitalisation when engaged in cultural heritage (CH) policies.Originality/valueThe paper addresses a long-standing problem that has never been solved: how to enhance the consciousness of the CH amongst stakeholders and reconcile their different and conflicting needs in the historical urban environment in the process of revitalisation.

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