Grading and Certification: Implications for Cultural Heritage Management

Abstract

Anecdotal mention of cultural resources in already established natural resources grading and certification systems exists, in particular within the broader ecotourism model. In the absence of certification standards for cultural heritage management field, this chapter explores how certification initiatives that already exist can be used as a springboard to inspire similar initiatives in cultural heritage management. In this chapter the broader ecotourism model is identified as a framework for discussion. The most dominant use of natural resources in African landscapes is tourism, and as such most grading and certification programmes are modelled around tourism use. Resources use in tourism involves a broad range of stakeholders that are both local (host) and international (tourists). Tourism also uses a wide range of resources by type, spanning from landscapes to animals to features. The same is also true for cultural and heritage resources use, whereby as stated in Chap. 1, economic use value of cultural resources is heightening, though without any conservation strategy. To provide a platform for theoretical and practical discussions on ways to initiate certification processes for cultural heritage resources, a case study of the Botswana tourism establishment’s grading and Botswana eco-certification systems is discussed in the context of cultural heritage. The analysis indicates that whereas some sectors incorporate cultural resources use in their management portfolios, this is done in an unsustainable manner, even where these resources are incorporated in a certification model such as the popular ecotourism framework. In ecotourism cultural resources are addressed as if they are natural resources, with incompatible indicators of conservation applied on them. Certification initiatives that recognise uniqueness of cultural heritage resources or those initiatives that focus solely on cultural resources are needed.