Expertise and the making of world heritage policy

This paper contributes to two emergent areas of scholarship: first, the role of expertise within the domain of cultural heritage practice; and second, international heritage institutions and their processes of governance. It does so by exploring expertise within the context of World Heritage Committee meetings. These forums of international heritage policy formulation have undergone significant changes in recent years, with larger geopolitical forces increasingly shaping process and decisions. This paper foregrounds the idea of these annual meetings as ‘locales’ in order to explore the inflows of expertise that help constitute authoritative decision-making, how expert knowledge is crafted for and by bureaucratic structure, and how the interplay between technical knowledge and politics via an ‘aesthetics of expertise’ bears upon future directions. In offering such an analysis, the paper seeks to add nuance and conceptual depth to our understanding of international conservation policy and the regulatory, governmental practices of organisations such as UNESCO.

Re-framing values for a World Heritage future: what type of icon will K'gari-Fraser Island become?

K’gari-Fraser Island, the world's largest barrier sand island, is at the crossroads of World Heritage status, due to destructive environmental use in concert with climate change. Will K’gari-Fraser Island exemplify innovative, adaptive management or become just another degraded recreational facility? We synthesize the likely impact of human pressures and predicted consequences on the values of this island. World-renown natural beauty and ongoing biological and geological processes in coastal, wetland, heathland and rainforest environments, all contribute to its World Heritage status. The impact of hundreds of thousands of annual visitors is increasing on the island's biodiversity, cultural connections, ecological functions and environmental values. Maintaining World Heritage values will necessitate the re-framing of values to integrate socioeconomic factors in management and reduce extractive forms of tourism. Environmentally sound, systematic conservation planning that achieves social equity is urgently needed to rectify historical mistakes and update current management practices. Characterizing and sustaining biological refugia will be important to retain biodiversity in areas that are less visited. The development of a coherent approach to interpretation concerning history, access and values is required to encourage a more sympathetic use of this World Heritage environment. Alternatively, ongoing attrition of the islands values by increased levels of destructive use is inevitable.

The Catuspatha pattern in Balinese palace: architectural conservation and challenges

Balinese architecture was established prior to European colonization and significantly enhances traditional Balinese values that are woven into the predominant Hindu religion. Palaces are integral to the architectural heritage of Bali and were dated back to the Majapahit Empire. Balinese palaceswere constructed for non-ritualistic activities in this historical cultural landscape. Palaces were often located on road corners called catuspatha1andthey possess sacred values embodied in the concept of pempatanagung.Although Bali Province is today governed as one governance unit, these palaces still reflect their own multiple regal associations which arestill respected by Balinese society. The representations and architecture of these palaces andthe communicative symbols of a heyday era of Bali are raising questions as to how they can be accommodated within the over-arching tourism development and globalization of culture that Bali is experiencing. Therefore, this paper reviews pre-colonial Balinese palaces, their architecture, the catuspatha concept, and considers the traditional values of these ancient monuments as to conservation of palaces and their associated cultural heritage. An extensive literature review, surveys and observational inventories were undertaken at several palaces to obtain results that raise new questions about how these complexes can withstand globalization challenges whilst respecting traditional Balinese culture and society.

‘On the move’? Maritime heritage and urban redevelopment in Melbourne

This paper explores issues surrounding the conservation and management of Polly Woodside, one of Victoria’s most significant maritime heritage objects. Sold to the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) for restoration in 1968, the ship has been berthed in the historic Duke’s Dock since 1978. Through various incarnations, the ship and associated museum have been a key feature of the Melbourne ‘riverscape’, and a major tourist attraction, ever since. The paper briefly explores the history of the Polly Woodside and museum, before focusing on the debates about the future use and location of the vessel brought about by the continuing redevelopment of Melbourne’s South Wharf from the mid-1990s until today. It examines how these contentious and often heated debates were shaped by different understandings of the ship's cultural significance, as well as ideas of community, ownership and sustainability, which have wider implications for the management of maritime cultural heritage within a context of urban redevelopment and place promotion.

World heritage: alternative futures

In 2009, the General Assembly of States Parties to the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (commonly known as the World Heritage Convention) established an open‐ended working group to debate, reflect on, and strategize for the future of the convention. Since that time, an array of scenarios for alternative directions has been discussed. At its fortieth anniversary celebration in Kyoto in 2012, the World Heritage Convention was referred to by many speakers as having reached a crossroads, a juncture at which a decisive path toward its future sustainability, credibility, and long‐term viability needs to be selected (Vujicic‐Lugassy 2013). Lengthy lists of challenges and gaps highlighted the shortcomings of the World Heritage Convention after four decades of implementation, and these now feature equally in contemporary discourses alongside those that refer to the convention’s enormous success and flagship status within UNESCO.While the World Heritage Convention’s popularity seems likely to increase, along with pressure for new World Heritage listings, the original intent of its authors – mutual support for conservation and international cooperation towards this end – seems to have shifted out of focus. In a time of growing utilization rather than implementation of the convention, its credibility is critically at stake.

The new heritage studies : origins and evolution, problems and prospects

Over the last three decades, community and professional views of what constitutes significant cultural heritage have broadened in many countries around the world. Heritage practice has moved from a narrowly technical or fabric focus to a values-based approach engaging all stakeholders, including indigenous communities. While much Western heritage knowledge and practice remains indispensable, gaps can be filled in by drawing on other knowledge areas and ethical considerations, including links between heritage practice and human rights. These new directions require new approaches in the preparation of practitioners as well as others engaged in heritage processes. In addition to education and training, a third concept – capacity-building – is overarching and potentially powerful in reaching new heritage actors. The aim of giving heritage a valued role in the life of the community, which applies at global, national, and local levels, represents the greatest challenge for educators, trainers, and capacity-builders in the contemporary world.

The new heritage studies and education, training, and capacity-building

Over the last three decades, community and professional views of what constitutes significant cultural heritage have broadened in many countries around the world. Heritage practice has moved from a narrowly technical or fabric focus to a values-based approach engaging all stakeholders, including indigenous communities. While much Western heritage knowledge and practice remains indispensable, gaps can be filled in by drawing on other knowledge areas and ethical considerations, including links between heritage practice and human rights. These new directions require new approaches in the preparation of practitioners as well as others engaged in heritage processes. In addition to education and training, a third concept – capacity-building – is overarching and potentially powerful in reaching new heritage actors. The aim of giving heritage a valued role in the life of the community, which applies at global, national, and local levels, represents the greatest challenge for educators, trainers, and capacity-builders in the contemporary world.

Crossing boundaries: exploring biocultural concepts and practices in the World Heritage system

This paper discusses current joint work by IUCN and ICOMOS to address issues that can arise when natural and cultural values and issues are considered separately within World Heritage processes. The Connecting Practice programme has conceptual and practical dimensions, and intersects with related work on rights-based approaches. Focusing on the importance of improving conservation outcomes, we propose a way forward situated in a 'middle ground' that links both theory and practice, and emphasises the critical importance of a joint approach - 'connecting' natural and cultural heritage practice. Some early findings of project field visits will be shared with the Scientific Symposium as a means of furthering the dialogue between practitioners.

Urban heritage, development and sustainability : international frameworks, national and local governance

This volume is a timely analysis of current theories and practises in urban heritage, with particular reference to the conflict between, and potential reconciliation of, conservation and development goals.

Evolution and significance of the regeneration reserve heritage landscape of Broken Hill: history, values and significance

In 1991, the National Trust of NSW classified the Regeneration Reserves surrounding the City of Broken Hill as an essential cultural heritage asset of the City of Broken Hill, and in 2015 the City of Broken Hill, including the reserves, were elevated to the National Heritage List under the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This tract of land, and its proponents, Albert and Margaret Morris, are recognised as pioneers of arid zone revegetation science in Australia; a point noted in the National Heritage List citation. They created at Broken Hill a unique revegetation ‘greenbelt’ of national ecological, landscape architectural and town planning significance. The Morris’ led the advancement of arid zone botanical investigation and taxonomic inquiry, propagation innovation, and revegetation sciencein the 1920s-40s in Australia and applied this spatially. Their research and practical applications, in crafting the regeneration reserves around Broken Hill, demonstrated the need for landscape harmonisation to occur to reduce erosion and dust damage to human and mining activities alike. This pioneering research and practice informs and underpins much arid zone mine reclamation and revegetation work in Australia today. This paper reviews the historical evolution of this cultural landscape, its integral importance to the cultural heritage and mining history of the City of Broken Hill, and its inclusion as part of the Broken Hill National Heritage List citation.

Heritage diplomacy: entangled materialities of international relations

The paper explores the concept of heritage diplomacy in order to critically examine the links between conservation, cultural aid and hard power, and the dance between nationalism and internationalism. Three themes - venues, cooperation, and borders - orient the discussion, opening lines of enquiry previously ignored by scholars in a variety of fields concerning the entanglements between the past and the enterprise of preserving its material culture, and our unfolding histories of globalization and international affairs.