The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
of the cultural heritage criteria, but in a number of cases the properties are also recognised for
their outstanding natural values. An example is the transboundary site of Mont Perdu between
France and Spain where no border exists in the ecological systems or the pastoral activities of
the local communities, and which reflects an agricultural way of life once widespread in the
upland regions of Europe, surviving now only in this part of the Pyrenees. This area provides
exceptional insight into the past through its landscape of villages, farms, fields, upland pastures
and mountain trails and is also on the World Heritage List for its natural values.
The inclusion of cultural landscapes as part of the implementation of the World Heritage
Convention has had a number of significant impacts on conservation. First, the category of
associative cultural landscape has contributed substantially to the recognition of intangible
values and to the heritage of local communities and indigenous people. For the first time these
examples of cultural heritage have received worldwide recognition alongside the Taj Mahal in
India or the Pyramids of Egypt, or the natural wonders of the Victoria Falls on the border of
Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the Grand Canyon in the USA. The fundamental shift was the
acceptance of the value of communities and their relation to their environment, including the
link between landscapes and powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations even in the
absence of material cultural evidence. These landscapes are places with associative cultural
values, some considered as sacred sites, which may be physical entities or mental images that
are embedded in a people’s spirituality, cultural tradition, and practice. The category of sacred
sites has an immense potential, as many of these areas have been protected primarily because
they are sacred sites of high value to society. Long before the development of categories of
protected areas such as national parks, nature reserves and protected landscapes, indigenous
peoples have sheltered their sacred places. Through a diverse range of mechanisms they have
con tributed to preserving cultural spaces and sites with biological diversity and transmitted
them to future generations.
Second, recognition of cultural landscapes gave value to land-use systems that represent the
continuity of people working the land over centuries and sometimes millennia to adapt the
natural environment and retain or enhance biological diversity. The key world crops were
developed in the spectacular agricultural systems in the High Andes (e.g., potatoes, corn),
terraced rice paddies in Asia (e.g., rice, fish and vegetables) or oasis systems in the Sahara (e.g.,
dates). The global importance of these systems and the genetic varieties of these diverse
cultural land scapes was acknowledged. At the same time, the building techniques, vernacular
architecture, and ingenious schemes of these systems also received attention, as they often
relate to complex social systems. Often these knowledge systems are intertwined with belief
systems, rituals and ceremonials. Irrigation systems such as the mud channels in the steep
terrain of the Philippine Cordilleras, the Quanat structures in Northern Africa, or the dry stone
walls in the Mediterranean also show the interdependence of people in the cultural landscape. If
the physical or the social structure collapses, the whole landscape and ecological system is
threatened.
Third, the inscription of sites as cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List has had
important impacts on the interpretation, presentation and management of the properties. The
nomination process led to an increased awareness among the local communities, new pride in
their own heritage, and often to the revival of traditions. In some cases new threats had to be
faced with an increase in tourism and related developments. In other cases these landscapes
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