Download File - UNESCO World Heritage

The area of the Botanical Gardens is coterminous on its
west with Sector B of the National Park and is mainly
outside the Protected Area. The three headlands lie outside
the Protected Area, with dense waterfront development
included in the Buffer Zone along all but the east side of
Urca (occupied by Sugar Loaf).
The three main components of the nomination (Sectors A,
B and C) are all within (indeed are) the National Park
(Federal Decree nos. 50.923 of 06/07/61 and 60.183 of
08/02/67). It is also part of the UNESCO Atlantic Rain
Forest Biosphere Reserve. The Botanical Garden is outside
the Park but is also part of the Biosphere Reserve. The
architectural complex of the Forest Garden is protected by
being listed under federal law, as are Sugar Loaf and other
features and structures within the nominated areas.
Management structure:
Management of the Tijuca National Park, supported by the
Ministries of the Environment (MMA), of Sports and
Tourism, and of Budget and Management, is provided by a
mixed regime of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment
and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the
Department of Eco-Systems (DIREC) and the City Council
of Rio de Janeiro. Sugar Loaf and Urca are managed by the
City Council alone; and Cara de Cão by the Ministry for
the Army. The Botanical Gardens Research Institute is an
autonomous public body linked to the Ministry of the
Environment. It has its own 5000-strong Association of
Friends (which contributed to the nomination dossier).
The nomination makes no mention of any arrangements for
the overall management of the nominated areas as a World
Heritage Site. Such an entity, if it is to exist, would benefit
from its own presiding body, executive or advisory, rather
than having to rely on the fragmented attention of
numerous different bodies meeting in four different
situations. Without such, there is a risk that World Heritage
interests, as distinct from those of federal and local
government and of particular sites and organisations, will
not be appropriately addressed.
Resources:
There is no single management plan as such for the
nominated area, but the management of its components
occurs within key existing provisions, namely the overall
city plan (1992), the Area of Environmental Protection and
Urban Regulation of Alto da Boa Vista-Aparu and of other
areas of environmental protection, a Strategic Plan for the
Tijuca National Park (1999), and management plans for the
National Park (1981) and Botanical Gardens Research
Institute (2001).
The National Park enjoys three official and two external
sources of finance, including funds gathered from the sale
of admission tickets to Corcovado. The Botanical Gardens
is likewise funded from public and private sources. Part of
the takings by a concessionaire for the use of facilities at
Sugar Loaf and Urca is returned for their upkeep,
otherwise funded by the City. Funding at Cara de Cão
comes from the Army.
The Park employs almost 200 people in total, 166 of them
involved in cleaning and security. The Botanical Gardens
Research Institute employs 166 staff; 37% of them are
PhDs. Emphasis is given to the importance of staff
training.
10
Considerable resources go into visitor management and
interpretation. Over 2.5 million visits per annum are made
to the National Park, around 1 million to Sugar Loaf, and
about 350,000 to the Botanical Gardens. Careful
differentiation is made between different uses for different
areas within the Park, in the face of enormous recreational
demand, for which a considerable infrastructure is
required. Much of this is ‘hard’ eg paved roads and car
parks, a heliport (at Corcovado), restaurants, shops, toilets
and barbecue pits, though many of the activities
themselves are ‘soft’ eg walking, climbing, viewing, hanggliding
and ecological education.
Justification by the State Party (summary)
The nomination is of an ‘urban location, both a natural site
and a site changed by man’. It is a cultural landscape
presenting all three sub-categories: a man-made creation
(the Botanical Gardens, and the Tijuca Forest); an
evolutionary landscape, always changing as ‘The forest
influences the city, while the city influences the forest’;
and an associative site centred around the iconographic
image of the Sugar Loaf and the statue of Christ the
Redeemer on Corcovado. ‘The ensemble offers one of the
world’s most admirable landscapes and one of the most
complex cultural landscapes, perhaps the most
distinguished urban landscape anywhere in the world.’
3. ICOMOS EVALUATION
Actions by ICOMOS
A joint ICOMOS/IUCN mission visited the site in
September 2002.
Conservation
Conservation history:
The area of Tijuca National Park, designated as such in
1961 and 1967, had previously been largely stripped of its
native vegetation, cultivated, exploited for its water, reafforested
for conservation reasons, partly turned into a
landscape park, developed for recreational purposes, and
then semi-neglected in the first half of the 20 th century. The
main significance of the creation of the Park is that it
defined limits for further building, and in so doing
signalled a change in attitude towards what was
increasingly seen as a precious environmental resource.
The Botanical Gardens have pursued their own
distinguished development since the 17 th century,
accumulating a formal garden, a forest, buildings and an
enviable scientific reputation.
The three headlands have not been seriously changed
during their rise in popularity over the last two centuries.
Sugar Loaf itself was definitively protected in 1973.
State of conservation:
All the areas are in a good state of nature conservation. The
Botanical Gardens are described as in ‘an excellent state of
conservation’, now including a new Herbarium building.
‘Key indicators for measuring the state of conservation’
enjoys its own short section in the nomination dossier: they
include such as measuring the potability of water and