World Heritage Sites for the Nation: the preservation of World Heritage Sites in a national context

This project will evaluate the implementation of the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the Convention) in ten countries (Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and the USA). It will assess its impact on national laws and its effectiveness in protecting World Heritage Sites; promoting effective custodianship of those Sites for the benefit of future generations by developing a set of minimum legal standards and policies, which should become a crucial reference point for local authorities, governments and stakeholders.

The Convention recognises that States have a duty to protect their cultural heritage with the dual aim to care for the past of humankind and improve the wellbeing of local communities. There are 704 Cultural World Heritage Sites, most of them in developed countries. These are under different man-made threats such as pressure to build modern infrastructure, urban development, privatisation, unsustainable tourism, poor management or inadequate administrative/legislative provisions. For example the Dresden Valley (Germany) Cultural World Heritage Site was delisted in 2009 because of the construction of a four-lane bridge that spoiled its Outstanding Universal Value. The World Heritage Committee recently found that most current management systems and protection arrangements in Western Europe need improvement and highlighted a need to give full information on legislation and other aspects of protection in the different countries party to the Convention (World Heritage Report 20,61;62).

The research will address these problems by evaluating the efficiency of national laws in the protection of World Heritage Sites through a critical comparison of ten legal systems and two questions that will cross disciplines and allow for a detailed and sustained engagement with a historical and cultural perspective. It will provide an analysis of the legal discourse of the Convention at both international and national level in order to understand the difficulty of developing a coherent definition of sites of Outstanding Universal Value. Secondly, it will offer a critical evaluation of national legal instruments and policies that protect those sites in order to shape perspectives for their future management and to enhance their stewardship through long term strategic planning. This will be achieved through an assessment of the indeterminate criteria of 'appropriateness' found in Art. 5 of the Convention; an evaluation of national legal, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation and rehabilitation of those Sites; it will look at the different regimes of ownership and finally it will examine the level of integrated management policy between the different level of authorities.

The findings from this project will enhance the stewardship of World Heritage Sites for the benefit of future generations and local communities by providing a clear understanding of the values behind cultural heritage laws and by developing long term legal/policy strategic planning for local authorities, governments and international agencies whether public, private or voluntary (local authorities, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, English Heritage, National Trust).

The project will include a workshop, a conference, and the creation of a network on the protection of the cultural heritage between international leading scholars and relevant stakeholders, which will long outlast the duration of the funding requested here. The results will be published in a book and findings will be disseminated amongst policy makers in the relevant countries through a policy document. Dissemination will also be facilitated through The Heritage Innovation Network at Kent (THINK) at the University of Kent which will organise events with local schools and museums promoting the protection of cultural heritage.

Beyond the significant potential academic impact of this network (as noted above), it will be a means for initiating knowledge exchange in the sphere of cultural heritage which UNESCO and its World Heritage Centre have encouraged through the development of World Heritage PACTs (Partnerships for Conservation Initiative). Moreover, the Western Europe sub group for Periodic Reporting of the application of the World Heritage Convention highlighted in 2009 the need to develop means of allowing states 'to give more full information on legislation and other aspects of protection in their constituent parts'. This research network will directly assist and benefit such action by providing detailed analysis of the laws and policy of the ten countries involved in the network.

The impact of this project will benefit from the wide range of complementary expertise and contacts brought to the network by its members who will be active in disseminating the research findings and recommendations to their national governments and stakeholders.

Locally, the Network will collaborate with The Heritage Innovation Network at Kent (THINK) which has contact with a range of cultural heritage stakeholders and works with local museums and schools to encourage different sections of society to identify with and participate in the stewardship of local cultural heritage. Other local authorities in charge of World Heritage Sites which are congregated under the Local Authority World Heritage Forum (LAWHF) will be contacted and invited to participate in the conference.

Nationally, the Network will collaborate with ARCH (Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage) which is a voluntary national network that aims to reduce heritage crime. It is spearheaded by English Heritage, the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. Chief Inspector Mark Harrison will represent ARCH at the workshop and conference. Dr Christopher Young, who is Head of International Advice, English Heritage and a member of the UK National Committee of UNESCO has agreed to participate in the network.

Internationally, the workshop and conference will enable knowledge exchange between leading international academics and heritage professionals, enabling a sharing of experiences and pursuit of shared goals such as better protection, conservation, and transmission of cultural heritage to future generations. This participation and exchange will facilitate the communication of best practice from World Heritage Site management to the wider heritage community. Once the network is established, the Advisory Group will seek advice from the World Heritage Committee to create a Partnership for Conservation Initiative (PACT). Other organisations such as ICOMOS - International Committee on Monuments and Sites (Susan Denyer, ICOMOS World Heritage Adviser Secretary, ICOMOS-UK) will be invited as well as representatives of the World Heritage Committee and of World Heritage Sites whether in public or private ownership.

Webspace for the network will be contributed by THINK, who will create the webpages and maintain them. The website will enable network members, academics, stakeholders and a wider audience to access the research (its aim, its importance, its methodology, the questionnaires).

The policy framework document will be printed and copies will be sent to government departments - both national and local, interested Members of Parliament, cultural heritage stakeholders such as English Heritage and National Trust, World Heritage Committee, UNESCO, ICOMOS (and its national representatives). Contacts at each of these key institutions will be fully exploited to ensure that the policy document reaches the right people and is fully considered by them.

The media office of the University of Kent will help to disseminate the findings of the research through radio and television broadcasts.