Living with heritage: site monitoring and heritage values in Greater Angkor and the Angkor World Heritage Site, Cambodia

Abstract

World Heritage conservation in developing countries is challenged by conflicting demands of preservation, economic development and social equity. Managing these demands requires monitoring of the dynamic interaction between cultural heritage, natural environment and contemporary society. Collaboration between research, management and governance is therefore necessary if we are to reconcile the competing demands of living with heritage. The Angkor World Heritage Site in Cambodia epitomizes the challenge and is a test case for the management of World Heritage in developing countries. A joint Cambodian and international programme is now developing collaboration policies, monitoring approaches and time-based, geographical information systems (GIS) for site management, in the context of the recent re-definition of the extent and the nature of Angkor by the surveys of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient and the Greater Angkor Project. The focus is on participatory planning, the role of mapping in engaging local communities in management processes and the relationship between diverse heritage values at the local, national and international scale.