Cultural landscapes in Asia and the Pacific : implications of the world heritage convention

The notion of cultural landscape has been accepted in the World Heritage Convention since 1992 but the adoption for World Heritage inscription is different among regions. This paper aims to address the issues of applying the concept of cultural landscape in Asia and the Pacific. The article first takes an overview of the World Heritage List and current issues related to the cultural landscape. This is followed by a discussion of the cultural landscape by referring to previous studies, with detailed analysis pointing out the major characteristics of the listed cultural landscapes in Asia and the Pacific, which are tabulated using the numerical data. The final discussion concludes by addressing the discourse on applying the World Heritage Convention and the current issues on cultural landscape conservation in Asia and the Pacific.

The colonial museum and UNESCO in the Asia-Pacific region

This thesis is an account of the role of UNESCO in promoting museology in the Asia-Pacific region after World War II. It shows how the strategy to advance cross-cultural mutual understanding through museum programmes built upon the British colonial museum system and facilitated new professional networks.

Building an economic case for food interventions in the pacific

Diet-related health problems are a major issue throughout the Pacific region. Micronutrient deficiencies are widespread and rates of non-communicable diseases are increasing. There is a need for food-related policy interventions to improve the quality of the food supply and to enhance access to a healthy diet. To support the promotion and eventual implementation of these interventions, it is vital that the costs and impacts of the interventions are known. This paper outlines a project being undertaken in the region to develop cost-effectiveness models for food interventions in order to help build the case for action.

Balancing act : competition and cooperation in US Asia-Pacific regionalism

While the United States is an important Asia-Pacific actor, its engagement with the region is complex and often difficult. Not only must US regionalism balance the diverse requirements of an ambitious policy agenda, but also US policy norms and priorities often clash with those of other regional actors. This has important implications for the capacity of the United States to provide regional leadership. Recent years have seen growing policy convergence between the United States and other Asia-Pacific actors, particularly in economic terms, but US regionalism continues to feature competition alongside collaboration.

Are shocks to real output permanent or transitory? Evidence from a panel of Pacific Island countries

Panel unit root and stationarity tests without structural breaks suggest that for eight Pacific island economies real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita contains a unit root. The panel stationarity test that accommodates structural change in the trend function, however, finds evidence in favour of regimewise trend stationarity. This result points to the importance of taking structural breaks into account. The finding implies that, for the period considered, the permanent secular component of output is dominated by transitory fluctuations accompanied by infrequent changes in the trend function. The only exceptions are Fiji and Kiribati, for which individual stationarity tests with multiple structural breaks suggest that real GDP per capita contains a unit root.

Is economic development in the Pacific island countries export led or import led?

This article examines the export-led growth and import-led growth hypotheses for a panel of Pacific island countries—namely, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu—for the period 1982–2004. The modelling is performed using a panel unit root, panel co-integration and panel Granger causality approach. We find bi-directional Granger causality for the panel of Pacific island countries between exports and economic growth, imports and economic growth, and exports and imports. The results suggest that the poor growth performance of many Pacific island countries reflects their poor export performance; however, if the supply-side constraints on exports are removed, there could be a virtuous cycle between economic growth and exports.

The role of policy in improving diets : experiences from the Pacific obesity prevention in communities food policy project

There is global interest in using multisectoral policy approaches to improve diets, and reduce obesity and non-communicable disease. However, there has been ad hoc implementation, which in some sectors such as the economic sector has been very limited, because of the lack of quality evidence on potential costs and impacts, and the inherent challenges associated with cross-sectoral policy development and implementation. The Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities food policy project aimed to inform relevant policy development and implementation in Pacific Island countries. The project developed an innovative participatory approach to identifying and assessing potential policy options in terms of their effectiveness and feasibility. It also used policy analysis methodology to assess three policy initiatives to reduce fatty meat availability and four soft drink taxes in the region, in order to identify strategies for supporting effective policy implementation.