Abstract
World cultural landscape heritage (WCLH), recognized as a combination of cultural relics and natural landscapes with outstanding significance and universal value, is unique in terms of its differentiation from the deliberate human creativity of general cultural heritage and the “deartificialization” of natural heritage. To date, the management of WCLH has become increasingly standardized. However, with the prevalence of heritage resource development activities such as heritage tourism, the phenomenon of “urbanization”, “commercialization”, “artificialization” and other issues have gradually emerged in WCLH sites. Thus, the management issues of WCLH have become increasingly serious, leading to intense concerns about the unsustainable development of WCLH. Drawing inspirations from management effectiveness (ME) evaluation research of protected areas and acknowledging the uniqueness of WCLH, this study constructs a WCLH ME evaluation system consisting of four general criteria (management foundation, management system, management measures and management performance), 16 factors and 34 indicators. The evaluation system is applied and verified through an empirical study of five existing WCLH sites in China. The empirical results show that the ME of Chinese WCLH is at a “good” level. Specifically, the management of Chinese WCLH is overall impressive in indicators of management planning, heritage protection performance and economic performance but shows deficiency in indicators of protection fees, management infrastructure, management assessment, management institution, social performance, etc. Finally, this study discusses the management issues of respective heritage sites to provide suggestions and inspirations for the development, protection and management of the sites and other cultural landscapes in China and even the world.
Highlights
As a special category of World Heritage, World Cultural Landscape Heritage (WCLH) is the combined work of a particular geographical environment and human beings [1] that is recognized as irreplaceable and rare by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Heritage Committee
The management effectiveness (ME) evaluation of the five WCLHs in China based on the evaluation system constructed shows that the overall ME scores of Lushan, West Lake, Mount Wutai, Hani Rice Terraces, and Huashan Rock Art are 3.75, 4.13, 3.48, 3.48 and 3.11, respectively, with an average score of 3.59 (Table 1)
The evaluation result is in line with the overall management status of the five WCLHs in China reported by interviewees, in the second collection of data, and in the online tourist reviews, indicating that the ME evaluation system of WCLHs constructed is practically operable and relatively scientific
Summary
As a special category of World Heritage, World Cultural Landscape Heritage (WCLH) is the combined work of a particular geographical environment and human beings [1] that is recognized as irreplaceable and rare by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Heritage Committee. The development focus of cultural landscapes turns from application to follow-up management, which has brought more serious challenges for heritage management departments in terms of management ability, management measures, management resources, etc. Unless effective management has been carried out at WCLH sites, the intrinsic contradiction between the development and the protection of heritage resources could seriously damage economic, social and ecological aspects of the sustainable development of the sites. With this background, it is of considerable importance and necessity to enhance the management effectiveness (ME) of WCLH [2, 3]
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