World Heritage Sites: nomination, inscription and management

Stephen Bond

Partner, TFT Cultural Heritage

Only nations (‘State Parties’) that have ratified the World Heritage Convention can submit nomination proposals to be considered for inclusion on the World Heritage List that is maintained by the World Heritage Centre at UNESCO

In order to be inscribed as a World Heritage Site, the State Party must demonstrate that the nominated property is of ‘outstanding universal value’

The World Heritage List includes 851 properties of which:

660 are cultural heritage sites

166 are natural heritage sites

25 are mixed

These WHS are spread across 141 of the 184 State Parties that have ratified the World Heritage Convention

World Heritage Sites (WHS)

There are currently 27 WHS in the UK

The sites inscribed in the past 10 years have been: Maritime Greenwich (1997)

Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999)

Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda (2000)

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (2000)

Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001)

Derwent Valley Mills (2001)

New Lanark (2001)

Saltaire (2001)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003)

Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City (2004)

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006)

World Heritage Sites in the UK

Historic Town of Zabid, Yemen

Criteria: Zabid's domestic and military architecture and its urban plan make it an outstanding archaeological and historical site. Besides being the capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century, the city played an important role in the Arab and Muslim world for many centuries because of its Islamic university.

Ha Long Bay – Viet Nam

Criteria: This bay includes some 1,600 islands and islets, forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and unaffected by a human presence. The site’s outstanding scenic beauty is complemented by its great biological interest.

Monastery of Haghpat - Armenia

Criteria: The Committee decided to inscribe the Monastery of Haghpat as an exceptional example of ecclesiastical architecture that developed in Armenia in the 10th to 13th centuries which is unique by virtue of its blending of elements of both Byzantine church architecture and the traditional vernacular building style of this region.

The Ancient City of Ping Yao - China

Criteria: An outstanding example of a Han Chinese city of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (14th-20th centuries) that has retained all its features to an exceptional degree and in doing so provides a remarkably complete picture of cultural, social, economic, and religious development during one of the most seminal periods of Chinese history.

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Canada

Criteria: In addition to its scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park – located at the heart of the province of Alberta's badlands – contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the 'Age of Reptiles', in particular about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years.

Dorset & East Devon Coastline - England

Criteria: The coastal exposures within the site provide an almost continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era and document approximately 185 million years of Earth history. The site includes a range of internationally important fossil localities – both vertebrate and invertebrate, marine and terrestrial - which have produced well preserved and diverse evidence of life during Mesozoic times.

Iguazu National Park - Argentina

Criteria: The semicircular waterfall at the heart of this site is some 80 m high and 2,700 m in diameter and is situated on a basaltic line spanning the border between Argentina and Brazil. Made up of many cascades producing vast sprays of water, it is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. The surrounding subtropical rainforest has over 2,000 species of vascular plants and is home to the typical wildlife of the region: tapirs, giant anteaters, howler monkeys, ocelots, jaguars and caymans.

Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak

Criteria: Discovered in 1944, this tomb dates from the Hellenistic period, around the end of the 4th century BC. It is located near Seutopolis, the capital city of the Thracian king Seutes III, and is part of a large Thracian necropolis. The tholos has a narrow corridor and a round burial chamber, both decorated with murals representing Thracian burial rituals and culture. These paintings are Bulgaria’s best-preserved artistic masterpieces from the Hellenistic period.

Cultural Heritage Sites

The World Heritage Convention defines cultural heritage properties as:

Monuments

Groups of buildings

Sites, including cultural landscapes

Monuments as Cultural Heritage

‘Architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science’

Groups of Buildings as Cultural Heritage

‘Groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science’

Sites as Cultural Heritage

‘Works of man or the combined works of nature and of man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological points of view’

Cultural Landscape Sites as Cultural Heritage

‘Cultural Landscapes represent the ‘combined works of nature and of man’. They are illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by their natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal. Cultural landscapes include diverse examples of the interaction between humans and the natural environment and fall into three main categories:

the clearly defined landscape designed and created intentionally by man;

the organically evolved landscape; and

the associative cultural landscape’

Criteria for Inscription (Outstanding Universal Value)

Outstanding universal value is defined within UNESCO’s ‘Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention’ (2005) as:

‘Cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity. As such, the permanent protection of this heritage is of the highest importance to the international community as a whole’

Criteria for Inscription (Outstanding Universal Value)

In order to be inscribed as a World Heritage Site, a cultural heritage property must :

Meet one or more of the following criteria, and

The test of authenticity, and

Be adequately protected

Nominated cultural heritage properties must:

Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; or

Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design; or

Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared; or

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; or

Be an 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; or

Be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance (the Committee considers that this criterion should justify inclusion in the List only in exceptional circumstances and in conjunction with other criteria cultural or natural)

The Process of Nomination

Before being nominated for consideration as a World Heritage Site, cultural, natural and mixed heritage properties first have to be on a ‘Tentative List’. This is a list of sites that have been identified by the State Party as having outstanding universal value. The UK produced a second Tentative List of 25 sites in 1999. So far, 9 of these have gone on to be inscribed successfully as WHS.

The Process of Nomination

Currently, the member parties to the World Heritage Convention are only allowed one nomination each year. The UK’s current nomination, which will be considered by the next World Heritage Committee meeting in June 2008, is The Antonine Wall, as part of the transnational site: Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

The 1999 Tentative List

In 1999, the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) identified a series of themes for inclusion on the Tentative List as natural or cultural heritage of outstanding universal value. Themes for cultural properties at that time were:

Cultural landscapes

The origins of Christianity

Industrialisation

Britain’s global influence

Planned landscapes and gardens

Other sites

The Tentative List and Nomination

New entries are generally not added onto the Tentative List until it is reviewed in its entirety. Currently, the following remain on the Tentative List from 1999, but have yet to be nominated:

Chatham Naval Dockyard

Darwin’s Home and Workplace

Lake District

Manchester, Trafford and Salford

Monkwearmouth/Jarrow

The New Forest

Great Western Railway

Shakespeare’s Stratford

The Wash and North Norfolk Coast

The Cairngorm Mountains

The Flow Country

The Forth Rail Bridge

Pont-Cysyllte Aqueduct

Mount Stewart Gardens

Fountains Cavern, Anguilla

The Fortress of Gibraltar

Review of the Tentative List

‘DCMS is currently leading a policy review to ensure that outstanding heritage sites in the UK, its Dependencies and Territories are appropriately identified, protected and promoted. As part of this review it has commissioned Pricewaterhouse Coopers…to undertake a comprehensive study into the costs and benefits associated with World Heritage Site status in the UK…Once this initial analysis is complete we plan to engage the public more widely in a consultation in the autumn on our future approach to World Heritage. Should we decide following this consultation to draw up a new Tentative List, we would expect to invite applications from potential sites early in 2008’

DCMS Press Release 30th July 2007

The Process of Nomination

The State Party (in the UK, DCMS) selects sites from its Tentative List to bring forward for nomination and prepares a Nomination File. This must contain all necessary documentation to demonstrate the outstanding universal value of the property and the criteria for its nomination, its authenticity, and the adequacy of its management regime. A robust management plan for the site is an essential prerequisite.

It can take several years to develop the Nomination File successfully.

DCMS and its advisor, English Heritage, are now determined that ‘emphasis should be given to the qualitative issues of management’. As part of the review of the Tentative List, new policy is likely to be developed ‘to ensure that current and proposed WHS should take their obligations seriously’.

The Process of Nomination

Each State Party can nominate one new property to be considered for inclusion on the World Heritage List every year

The Nomination File is submitted to the WHC for review and to check that it is complete

Once the nomination file has been accepted, the WHC sends it to the appropriate Advisory Bodies for evaluation. The principal Advisory Bodies to UNESCO for this purpose are the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM)

The period of evaluation takes approximately 18 months before a final decision is made by the World Heritage Committee at its annual meeting

The Legislative Context for WHS in the UK

In some countries, World Heritage Sites are provided with additional statutory protection under national planning/development legislation. Currently, that is not the case in the United Kingdom.

However, the outstanding international importance of the site does constitute a key material consideration to be taken into account by local planning authorities in determining planning and listed building applications.

Local authorities are also required to formulate specific planning policies for protecting World Heritage Sites.

Buffer Zones to WHS

UNESCO’s 2005 ‘Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention’ envisage that Nomination Files may identify a buffer zone around the nominated property to provide protection against deleterious change

The Guidelines state that ‘a buffer zone is an area surrounding the nominated property which has complementary legal and/or customary restrictions placed on its use and development to give an added layer of protection to the property’, and…

…‘should include the immediate setting of the nominated property, important views and other areas or attributes that are functionally important as a support to the property and its protection’

Buffer Zones to WHS

UNESCO’s 2005 ‘Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention’ also declare that ‘any modifications to the buffer zone subsequent to inscription of a property on the World Heritage List should be approved by the World Heritage Committee’

It has recently been pointed out that ‘Now, countries are under a fairly onerous obligation to obtain international approval for activities in the buffer zones of their World Heritage Sites. Furthermore, recent decisions by the [World Heritage] Committee suggest that this obligation extends beyond the formal boundaries of buffer zones to include views and vistas’.

The implication is that, potentially, inscription as a World Heritage Site does, through the wording of the Operational Guidelines, confer certain additional international statutory protection, irrespective of the original intent of the relevant national Government through application of its legislative planning and development controls.

Summary

DCMS may well decide to draw up a new Tentative List in the near future, perhaps inviting applications from potential sites early in 2008

The themes, if any, to be applied in making selections for inclusion on a new Tentative List are not known at present

New entries will need to demonstrate that they are truly of outstanding universal value – in other words, ‘so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity’

In addition, applicants will need to give ‘emphasis…to qualitative issues of management’ and demonstrate that they ‘take their [management] obligations seriously’.

To be included on any new DCMS List, cultural heritage sites must:

Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; or

Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design; or

Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared; or

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; or

Be an 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; or

Be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance (remembering that the WHC considers that this criterion should justify inscription as a WHS only in exceptional circumstances and in conjunction with other cultural or natural criteria)