Putting the "and" back in the culture-nature debate: integrated cultural and natural heritage protection.

• Author: Carlarne, Cinnamon Pinon

1. INTRODUCTION II. CULTURAL & NATURAL HERITAGE: AN OVERVIEW A. Cultural Heritage B. Natural Heritages C. Nature Conservation Strategies Worldwide D. The Links Between Cultural and Natural Heritage E. Characteristics of Sites of Overlapping Cultural & Natural Heritage III. The Present and Future of Integrated Cultural & Natural Heritage Management A. Challenges Posed to Protecting Cultural and Natural Heritage B. Existing Legal/Regulatory Efforts to Protect Cultural and Natural Heritage 1. Developed Countries a. The United States b. The European Union (1) England (a) National Parks (b) Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (c) Conservation Areas (2) Dartmoor National Park (a) The Dartmoor Local Plan (b) Local Plan Aims (c) Local Plan Landscapes c. Canada 2. Developing Countries a. China b. Brazil IV. CONCLUSION A. Why Integrate Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection? B. Bridging Boundaries for Mutual Gain I. INTRODUCTION

   Formal legal efforts to protect cultural and natural heritage are not a modern phenomenon. In the developed and developing worlds, regional, state, and local governments undertake efforts to protect their cultural heritage and their natural resources. Most cultural and natural resource protection regimes, however, have evolved independently of one another. This is only recently beginning to change. As scholars, regulators, and activists increasingly recognize the links and overlap between areas of cultural and natural heritage, they are beginning to come together to develop new regimes for joint cultural and environmental protection.

   These early efforts jointly to protect cultural and natural heritage vary significantly in character and success. These variations reflect a still vague and evolving understanding of the interplay between culture and nature, the relationship between public and private land ownership, and significant regional differences in existing legal regimes, economic development, and environmental agendas.

   Further, there is currently very little comprehensive research examining global efforts to develop heritage protection areas that integrate both cultural and natural resource conservation. There is even less research analyzing how relationships between land ownership and social conceptions of culture and nature impact the development of future cultural and natural heritage programs.

   The goal of this paper is to contribute to and encourage the development of innovative, interdisciplinary approaches for the protection, preservation, and enhancement of natural and cultural heritage areas. The second section of this paper examines traditional notions and regulatory regimes for cultural and natural heritage protection, and delves into the links between cultural and natural heritage. Section three analyzes existing cultural heritage and environmental/natural protection laws, and provides examples of joint cultural and natural heritage preservation efforts. In particular, section three considers how current and prospective joint cultural and natural heritage protection efforts in developed and developing countries contribute to the social and economic development of communities and regions, and advance the principles of sustainable development by strengthening the historical continuity of a place and its people, and by guiding development in ways consistent with the characteristics of these cultural and natural resources. Additionally, section three examines case studies in the United States, Europe, Canada, Brazil, and China to demonstrate the challenges and critical elements integral to developing innovative and sustainable cultural and natural heritage preservation schemes. Finally, in section four, this paper proposes ways to improve and expand upon existing cultural and natural heritage preservation techniques, and suggests that recognizing the links between cultural heritage and natural heritage is necessary to promoting sustainable development in both developed and developing countries.

2. CULTURAL & NATURAL HERITAGE: AN OVERVIEW

   1. Cultural Heritage

      The concept of cultural heritage in international law dates back to the turn of the 20th century. The concept is, thus, thoroughly engrained in academic debate and regulatory systems worldwide. The terms "cultural heritage" and "cultural resources," however, defy singular definition and are understood differently across time and cultures. (1) At the international level, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is responsible for developing the core body of international treaties and soft law for cultural heritage protection. UNESCO defines heritage as "the product and witness of the different traditions and of the spiritual achievements of the past and ... thus an essential element in the personality of peoples." (2) Culture was identified and defined as early as 1871 by the eminent anthropologist E.B. Tylor as including "knowledge, belief, art, morals law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." (3) Defining heritage and cultural heritage, thus, inevitably involves subjectively defining what tangible and intangible things from the past humans value and want to protect and preserve. (4) Therefore, definitions of cultural heritage evolve over time and vary from state to state and across international institutions. (5)

      Early protection efforts to define and protect cultural heritage were born out of threats posed to cultural heritage during times of war. For example, the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of UNESCO (the "Hague Convention") (6) "was the earliest of these modern international texts and was developed in great part in response to the destruction and looting of monuments and works of art during the Second World War." (7) The Hague Convention affirmed the international community's commitment to protecting cultural heritage both in peacetime and in times of war. The Hague Convention enunciates one of the earliest statements of the international community's general concern for cultural heritage, stating that "damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind, since each people makes its contribution to the culture of the world." (8) The Hague Convention marks the beginning of the international community's acceptance of the concept that cultural heritage protection is a common responsibility and provides a mechanism for improving interstate communication and relations.

      The Hague Convention was closely followed by two further UNESCO Conventions in 1970 and 1972. The 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property focuses on protecting cultural property from illegal trade, (9) and the 1972 World Heritage Convention creates an international regime for designating and protecting areas of outstanding world cultural and natural heritage. (10) These two seminal UNESCO Conventions paved the way for five subsequent UNESCO Recommendations on the protection of cultural heritage. (11) The final and most recent addition to the family of cultural heritage treaties is the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) Convention on the International Return of Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which, as its name implies, focuses on limiting illegal trade in items of cultural importance. (12) As the increasing number of international agreements and meetings reveals, beginning in the early 1900s and peaking in the 1970s, cultural heritage protection has become a core concern of international law. The esteemed academic, Professor Francioni, (13) affirms the importance of cultural heritage in international law claiming that it has emerged:

      [A]s part of the shared interest of humanity, with the consequent need for international law to safeguard it in its material and living manifestations, including the cultural communities that create, perform and maintain it.... [T]he exponential growth of international cultural property law in the past fifty years bears witness to the emergence of a new principle according to which parts of cultural heritage of international relevance are to be protected as the common heritage of humanity. (14) Francioni's comments are a testament to the fact that cultural heritage protection has achieved widespread acceptance as a core principle within the realm of international law. The UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (hereinafter World Heritage Convention, or WHC) is particularly relevant to this paper and aptly demonstrates the international regulatory strategy for protecting cultural heritage. Adopted in 1972, the WHC came into force in 1975, and claims wide State (State Parties to the Convention) participation; as of May 3, 2007 184 States had ratified the treaty. (15) The World Heritage Convention specifies that "[f]or the purposes of this Convention, international protection of the world cultural and natural heritage shall be understood to mean the establishment of a system of international cooperation and assistance designed to support States Parties to the Convention in their efforts to conserve and identify that heritage." (16) The underlying purpose of the World Heritage Convention is recognizing that certain sites of "cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole." (17) The WHC reflects increasing acceptance of the concept of "cultural internationalism," which "views cultural property as belonging to the world's peoples and not limited to the citizens of the state where the property is located." (18)

      The central feature of the World Heritage Convention is the creation of a list of critically important sites of cultural and...