First workshop of the REFIT project (refitproject.com) - Bibracte, March 2016 Exploring integrated approaches to cultural landscapes Current strategies, problems and potential Iron Age oppida as a case study

1. The World Heritage Convention
(1972) and the Concept of
Cultural Landscape
Bibracte - France
21-23 March 2016
Marielle Richon

3. Article 1
« Sites = works of man or the combined works
of nature and man, and areas including
archaeological sites which are of outstanding
universal value from the historical, aesthetic,
ethnological or anthropological point of
view. »

4. « Mixed » World Heritage Properties
« Satisfy a part or the whole of the definitions
of both cultural and natural »
« Cultural no longer the opposite of natural
nor is it synonymous with human made »
1+1 = 2 basis

5. A Short History
80s – Cultural Heritage:
- Monumental
- Christian
- Elitist
- European / Western

6. A Short History
80s – Natural heritage:
- Imposing natural sites
- National Parks
- Habitats of endangered species

7. A Short History
1992
• Rio « Earth Summit » (Convention on Biological
Diversity - (CBD)
• 20th anniversary of the WH Convention
• Experts Meeting – La Petite Pierre (France)

8. A Short History
1992 - A new category of WH properties: Cultural
Landscapes
• A better balance between nature & culture sought
• Awareness of interactions between man and nature
• In 1992 the World Heritage Convention became the
first international legal instrument to recognize and
protect cultural landscapes

9. Definition
Operational Guidelines (2015)
« Annex 3
Cultural landscapes are cultural properties and
represent the "combined works of nature and of
man" designated in Article 1 of the Convention. They
are illustrative of the evolution of human society
and settlement over time, under the influence of the
physical constraints and/or opportunities presented
by their natural environment and of successive
social, economic and cultural forces, both external
and internal. »

10. The term "cultural landscape" embraces a
diversity of manifestations of the interaction
between humankind and its natural
environment. Cultural landscapes often reflect
specific techniques of sustainable land-use,
considering the characteristics and limits of the
natural environment they are established in, and
a specific spiritual relation to nature.

11. The protection of cultural landscapes can
contribute to modern techniques of
sustainable land-use and can maintain or
enhance natural values in the landscape. The
continued existence of traditional forms of
land-use supports biological diversity in many
regions of the world. The protection of
traditional cultural landscapes is therefore
helpful in maintaining biological diversity.

12. Creating the Cultural Landscape
Category : the intention
To allow cultures whose heritage lay in non-
monumental things, such as sacred places in
the natural world, to gain a foothold on the
nationalistically lop-sided List. It also hoped
thereby to move towards another of its goals,
a more even geographical distribution of
World Heritage sites.

13. Creating the Cultural Landscape
Category : the intention
To be able to inscribe the sort of heritage
conceptually impossible to inscribe before the
advent of the cultural landscape concept

14. 3 Categories of cultural landscapes
1. Clearly defined landscape designed and created
intentionally by man (gardens)
2. Organically evolved landscape
- a relict (or fossil) landscape
- continuing landscape (vine-growing, rice-growing,
etc.)
3. Associative cultural landscape - powerful religious,
artistic or cultural associations of the natural element

15. 1. Created intentionally by man

16. Created intentionally by man
“Clearly defined landscape designed and
created intentionally by man. This embraces
garden and parkland landscapes constructed
for aesthetic reasons which are often (but not
always) associated with religious or other
monumental buildings and ensembles”

17. 1. Created intentionally by man
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ( United Kingdom)
(2003)(ii) (iii) (iv)

18. 1. Created intentionally by man
The Persian Garden (Iran, Islamic Republic of) (2011) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (vi)

19. 1. Created intentionally by man
Palace and Park of
Versailles
(France) (1979)
(i) (ii) (vi)

20. 2. Organically Evolved Landscapes
2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes

21. 2. Organically Evolved Landscapes
2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes
One in which an evolutionary process came to
an end at some time in the past, either
abruptly or over a period. Its significant
distinguishing features are, however, still
visible in material form.

22. 2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes
Bam and its Cultural Landscape (Iran, Islamic Republic of) (2004) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)

23. 2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes
Blaenavon
Industrial
Landscape
(United Kingdom)
(2000)
(iii) (iv)

24. 2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes
Cultural
Landscape and
Archaeological
Remains of the
Bamiyan Valley
(Afghanistan)
(2003) (i) (ii) (iii)
(iv) (vi)

25. 2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes
Quebrada de Humahuaca (Argentina) (2003) (ii) (iv) (v)

26. 2.1 Relict Cultural Landscapes
Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak
Cultural Landscape (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) (2001) (iii) (iv) (vi)

27. 2.1. Relict Cultural Landscapes
Le Morne Cultural Landscape (Mauritius) ( 2011) (iii) (vi)

28. 2. Organically Evolved Landscapes
2.2 Continuing Landscapes

29. 2. Organically Evolved Landscapes
2.2 Continuing Landscapes
One which retains an active social role in
contemporary society closely associated with
the traditional way of life, and in which the
evolutionary process is still in progress. At the
same time it exhibits significant material
evidence of its evolution over time.

30. 2.2 Continuing Cultural Landscapes
Viñales Valley (Cuba) (1999) (iv)

31. 2.2 Continuing Cultural Landscapes
Sukur Cultural Landscape (Nigeria) (1999) (iii) (v) (vi)

32. 2.2 Continuing Cultural Landscapes
Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces (Switzerland) (2007) (iii) (iv) (v)

33. 2.2 Continuing Cultural Landscapes
Agave Landscape
and Ancient
Industrial
Facilities of
Tequila
(Mexico)
(2006)
(ii) (iv) (v) (vi)

34. - Visually dramatic, hectares of rice-growing
terraces watered by a sophisticated irrigation
system are the basis of a regional economy in a
beautiful natural setting where trees and plants
provide holy places and deities.
- Working, agricultural landscape
2.2. Continuing
Cultural
Landscapes
Rice Terraces of the Philippine
Cordilleras (The Philippines)
(1995) (iii) (iv) (v)

35. 3. Associative Cultural Landscapes

36. 3. Associative Cultural Landscapes
The inclusion of such landscapes on the World
Heritage List is justifiable by virtue of the
powerful religious, artistic or cultural
associations of the natural element rather
than material cultural evidence, which may be
insignificant or even absent.

37. 3. Associative
Cultural
Landscapes
Tongariro National Park
(New Zealand)
(1990) (vi) (vii) (viii)

38. 3. Associative Cultural Landscapes
Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (Togo) (2004) (v) (vi)

39. 3. Associative Cultural Landscapes
Uluru-Kata
Tjuta National
Park
(Australia)
(1987)
(v) (vi) (vii)
(viii)

40. ‘A cultural landscape is a memorial to
the unknown labourer’
Anonymity and often
unselfconsciousness involved in the
creation of a distinctive landscape

41. Management
• maintain values justifying the WH
inscription
• a process which began well before a
nomination for World Heritage
inscription was submitted

42. Evaluation
of Cultural Landscapes Category
Clearly demonstrates :
- the close interdependence between
communities and cultural landscapes
- the vulnerability : if the physical or social
structure collapses, the whole cultural
landscape and its related eco-system
collapses

43. Perspectives
- Since 1992, 92 properties inscribed on
the World Heritage List as Cultural
Landscapes (48 in Europe/NA = 52%)
- Many properties inscribed prior to 1992
could also be considered as cultural
landscapes

44. Relict Cultural Landscape?
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (United Kingdom) (1986) (i) (ii) (iii)

45. Relict Cultural Landscape?
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (Peru) (1983) (i) (iii) (vii) (ix)

46. Relict Cultural Landscape?
Angkor (Cambodia) (1992) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv)

47. Conclusion
- ‘The Earth does not belong to man. Man
belongs to the Earth’ (Chief Seattle, 1851)
- ‘These sacred mountains are to be owned by no-
one and yet are for everyone’ (Paramount Chief
Tuwharetoa of Tongariro, 1997,
- That is what World Heritage cultural landscapes
are about.

48. THANK YOU!
Marielle Richon
marielrichon@orange.fr

49. Relict Cultural Landscape