The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

3. World Heritage Cultural Landscapes: a global perspective
became models for sustainable land-use and community stewardship, including the op por -
tunities for marketing of specific agricultural products or traditional arts and crafts.
Finally, the introduction of cultural landscapes into the World Heritage arena has made
people aware that sites are not isolated islands, but that they are part of larger ecological
systems and have cultural linkages in time and space beyond single monuments and strict
nature reserves. Thus the cultural landscape concept has contributed to the evolution in
environmental thought, protected area management strategies, and heritage conservation as a
whole. These impacts were recently demonstrated at the World Parks Congress in Durban in
2003 (IUCN, 2003). Cultural landscapes also reflect the extraordinary development in the
interpretation of the World Heritage Convention and the diversity of approaches and ex -
periences in preservation and stewardship worldwide.
Diverse footprints in the global landscape: Case studies from
different regions
Every cultural landscape has a unique complex of cultural and natural values, and is subject to
different legal protection frameworks and diverse national management systems and insti -
tutional arrangements. The following case studies illustrate the complexity of the values and
protection systems and also the diverse set of management challenges. The case studies
represent diverse conservation approaches for dynamic cultural landscapes, show communitymanaged
systems and traditional national park management, as well as illustrate a range of
different systems and management structures. This set of examples also demonstrates a key
aspect of the future vision for stewardship of cultural landscapes – sharing responsibilities
among the stakeholders, national and international, local and regional, community-based and
park authority management. This collection of examples also reflects a variety of ways to
address the linkages beyond the site itself – involvement of research institutions, training and
educational centres and, first and foremost, paving the way for future partnerships to transmit
knowledge and stewardship practices.
Cinque Terre (Italy) 5
Many of the agricultural heritage landscapes of the world are threatened both by the
failure of traditional ways to maintain production in a world of changing interests and
needs, and the demands of mass tourism, whose impacts threaten the very qualities that
attract tourists. Cinque Terre, a World Heritage cultural landscape, exemplifies these
dilemmas, but also offers hope that even in the most difficult situations, solutions may be
at hand (De Marco and Stovel, 2003).
The unique and diverse cultural land/seascape of wine-growing terraces and fishing villages
has been created and maintained over centuries. Only since the 1970s have terraces been
abandoned, creating adverse impacts on this complex integrated system, including the collapse
of many dry stonewalls and, consequently, landslides that have been severe. The World
Heritage inscription and this international recognition gave a boost to people’s pride in their
heritage and their territorial identity as well as to tourism and increased value of local products
such as a specialty wine of the area, Sciacchetrà. The designation brought direct economic
5
The name of the World Heritage site is “Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino
and Tinetto)” and goes beyond the National Park of Cinque Terre.
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