Transcending the nature/culture dichotomy: cultivated and cultured World Heritage nature

Abstract

This paper argues that more nuanced understandings of how people relate to nature are needed. The study investigates and discusses understandings, interpretations, and appreciations of nature that is not only wild, untouched and untamed, nor free of cultural intervention, human settlement, and visitation. The aim is to advance conceptualizations to benefit protection and management efforts of cultural and natural heritage by providing more nuanced understandings of what nature and culture “is” based on the case of the Wadden Sea National Park in Denmark, part of which is also designated UNESCO natural World Heritage. By means of a range of qualitative mobile methods engaging 48 research participants, their variations of interpretations, and appreciations of nature reveal subtle nuances of highly intertwined understandings and enactments of nature and culture. By transcending the binary dichotomies of nature/culture and rural/urban, findings represent a critical contribution to enhancing efforts to protect and manage the world’s cultural and natural heritage. This is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals #11: Sustainable cities and communities; SDG #14: Life below water; and SDG #15: Life on land.