Erroneous Public Conception on the World Heritage

CHP: China Heritage Update 6 Sept 2005

While the devastating Cultural Revolution was unfolding in China, the international community reached a very different consensus: the world's cultural and natural heritage was suffering damage from human activities; such damage was putting the world heritage on the verge of severe degradation; some examples of the cultural and natural heritage of the world are of particular significance, and should be protected as part of the heritage of mankind; therefore international society must work closely together to support the protection of this heritage from any possible damage.

Taking the above consensus as a guideline, the 17th conference of UNESCO passed the "Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage" in Paris on November 16th, 1972. This convention urges each signatory state to "do all it can to this end" to protect its cultural and natural heritage, using as many resources of its own as possible, while at the same time, the international society should also shoulder responsibility for this work.

In order to reach the goal set forth in the convention, UNESCO founded the "World Heritage Committee", whose main responsibility is to compile, update and publish the "World Heritage List", covering the "most valuable and representative heritage". And such heritage will be the key protection objective of the signatory states and the international society. Any heritage that has been listed in the "World Heritage List" will be regarded as a world heritage. According to the Convention, a World Heritage Site should fulfill the following criteria: unique, severely endangered, the home country takes full ownership of site protection, and the international community shoulders responsibility at the same time.

On November 22, 1985, the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress ratified this convention, and China formally became a signatory state. But twenty years after the convention was ratified in China, the prevalent public understanding of the World Heritage Sites in China nowadays is at odds with the spirit of the Convention. The prevalent understanding does recognize the historical significance of these heritage sites, but more as evidence proving the historical and cultural standing of China; instead of considering these heritage sites as seriously endangered, it is concerned that they have not been fully developed and utilized; it does consider the protection of these heritage necessary, but is not willing to take such responsibility, as "those who invest will benefit", so "those who develop should protect"; it also believes the international community should be responsible for the protection of these heritage sites, but only as a way of winning the application for new sites to be granted World Heritage status, and for gaining funding support. In fact, the World Heritage Sites in China are now becoming a synonym for a world-class travel attraction.

This kind of erroneous conception has arisen for three reasons: many top officials regard these heritage sites as inheritance bequeathed by our ancestors and believe they should serve the goal of economic development, so that it would be foolish to be concerned only with protection; a local official's performance in his job is evaluated principally based on economic development criteria, and not by the protection of the cultural or natural heritage; corruption in the field of public resources management has not been adequately addressed.

The convention has been implemented for twenty years, and the World Heritage application process has been undertaken with great success. At this time, there are over 31 Chinese heritage sites on the "World Heritage List". But given the prevalent misunderstanding, the protection afforded these 31 heritage sites is dubious, and some are already in desperate condition. The Convention has emphasized that each state should spare no effort to protect the heritage sites, and the international community should take responsibility. Now if the Chinese government would like to keep its commitment when joining the convention, then it should educate its high officials, take this as an essential part of their administrative performance evaluation, and take effective action in stopping the corruption. The international community should take the responsibility of heritage protection, and should be more proactive. The eleventh clause in the convention regarding the "List of World Heritage in Danger" should be a warning to those countries with poor performance in the world heritage site protection. Some of China's world heritage, including the Great Wall, have been altered almost beyond recognition, and are more endangered than most heritage sites listed in the "List of World Heritage in Danger", but does not appear on that list? Should not UNESCO and the "World Heritage Committee" be more proactive?

(Translated by Matthew Hu from www.wildchina.com)

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