Whose landscape, whose heritage? Landscape politics of ‘swiftlet farming’ in a World Heritage City

Abstract

To date, little attention has been paid to critical intersections between urban heritage and landscape change. This paper examines this relationship through the case of urban ‘swiftlet farming’ in the UNESCO World Heritage city of George Town, Penang, Malaysia, which over the past 10 years has been transformed by the phenomenon. However, the industry has been fiercely resisted due to many issues, most notably for its alleged irreversible damage to the (in)tangible heritage of George Town and its abundance of pre-war heritage shophouses. Yet on the other hand, swiftlet farmers, have sought to legitimise their right to the city by arguing that swiftlets and the harvesting of their nests are in fact an integral part of Penang’s cultural, economic and natural heritage. In digging into these controversies, this paper focuses on the circulating discourses around ideas of what constitutes ‘heritage’, and ‘appropriate’ uses of urban space.