Selected Summary Proceedings from Day One of Cultural Landscape Management

12 June 2008, University of Cumbria, Ambleside, Lake District

Related pages:
Cultural Landscape Management introduction
Cultural Landscape Management: Day Two

Session 1: World Heritage, the European Landscape Convention and Cultural Landscapes

1. Paul Walshe (Chair, ICOMOS-UK Cultural Landscapes and Historic Gardens Committee): European Landscape Convention and Cultural Landscapes

• ELC defines a landscape as “an area, as perceived by people…” A cultural landscape is relative to people’s values
• This applies to Europe broadly, not just the EU.
• Where the tangible and intangible meet.
• Every national and international landscape is a local one. A people’s right. All should be involved and well-informed about their surroundings.
• Cooperation at a European level: we have much to learn from each other

Read ICOMOS-UK/IUCN UK Implementing the European Landscape Convention

2. Susan Denyer (ICOMOS World Heritage Adviser & Secretary of ICOMOS-UK): World Heritage Convention and Cultural Landscapes

• Landscapes across Europe are virtually all cultural – they are about people and the environment and the interaction between the two.
• The World Heritage Convention 1972 is ratified by 185 countries making it one of the world’s most successful international conventions.
• Attributes of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) include the associations between tangible (physical) and intangible practices.
• A new category of site, cultural landscapes, was introduced to bridge the difference between cultural and natural designations: the Lake District’s first bid for WHS status was a fillip for this change
• An extension of cultural landscapes in World Heritage are Linked Sites, such as the Silk Roads, the Frontiers of the Roman Empire

3. Discussion

• Is natural a valid term?
• Does Government really understand what they have signed up to with the European Landscape Convention?

Session 3: Value-based management

4. Dominique Tremblay (Manager, Val de Loire World Heritage Site, Loire Valley, France): The Benefits and Challenges of Macro Landscapes

• The river is the great draw throughout history, bringing people to the area and influencing their activities there.
• A living river: traditional river activities and crafts
• Its Outstanding Unviersal Value revolves around its status as an historic cultural landscape: a 14th-16th c. Renaissance Landscape: castles, abbeys, vineyards, troglodytic dwellings.
• Management of the ‘label’ is important and for this the commitment of local communities and educational projects
• Plans to ensure sustainable tourism: La Loire à velo: a 800km cycle route
• Knowledge is a tool so information is feed into the International Rivers Heritage Institute
• International co-operation: Loire-Niger river to river co-operation
• A living landscape: the Loire Valley must not become a ‘museum’

5. David Thackray (Head of Archaeology, National Trust & Chair of ICOMOS-UK World Heritage Committee): Avebury Prehistoric Landscape, UK: Managing Intangible Qualities

• Avebury always had an ‘enigmatic’, mystical and timeless lure
• Growing new age and neo-pagan interest in the site, have to work with new ideas and new communities of interest
• A call by a pagan Druid group called COBDO (Council of British Druid Orders) to the reburial of ancient remains currently in the museum; no other group has made such concerted claims to the remains of the ancient dead
• How to balance the claims of a particular group with the rights for everyone to feel a part of this ancient heritage?
• Avebury should be a source of inspiration for all, prompted a desire to work more with artists, writers and poets to interpret the site and landscape for more people.

6. Nicholas Johnson (County Archaeologist, Cornwall County Council): Cornwall & West Devon Mining Landscape

• A dispersed site in several designated areas
• Powerful motto – “Our mining culture shaped your world;” also use of Cornish: “Ertach an Bys”
• Based specifically around non-ferrous hard-rock mining and technology developed during the 19th century – Cornwall ‘a silicon valley’ – Now beyond most people’s memories
• A post-medieval landscape – over 3000 engine houses – conservation
• Importance of the Interpretation Strategy – how to tell the multiple stories of Cornish mining?

7. Discussion

• Pagans – a different community we need to get to know – differentiation within this community, not just one group
• Difficulties of defining boundaries and maintain them in designated areas of WHSs
• Interpretation in the landscape: avoiding signs in the countryside – importance of using the web for this

Session 4: Managing change for local benefit

8. Paola Falini (Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy): Val d’Orcia, Italy: Sustaining the Farming Community

• Farming is highly important in this sparsely populated rural area
• Co-operation of local, not regional or national bodies
• Landscape formed by farming, medieval pilgrims along the via Francigena and the Sienese administration of its territory
• Important to know the history: information gathering exercise using maps, manuscripts and other sources
• Local support for education
• Important result is to remove abandonment
• Aim to increase tourism, aided by guides and trails
• Local educational initiatives based around site
• Artisanal commercial productions of oil, wine, cheese which increases the land-value

9. Rita Johansen (Director of the Foundation “Vegaøyan Verdensarv“, Norway): Vega, Norway: The Social and Economic Benefits of World Heritage Status

• A seascape with a buffer zone over c. 28,000 ha: 6,500 islands on the archipelago with low population of about 1,300
• Fishing and farming for over 10,000 years in this place
• Norway’s first cultural landscape WHS, and first coming out of a local initiative
• A way to save traditions and values in the area
• Eiderdown harvesting using traditional methods – unique in the world – a luxury market for the authentic Vega eiderdown
• Visitor centre is in the buffer zone
• Important to get kinds to the islands, school exchanges, use of the World Heritage school network: ASPNet
• Aim to be a base for knowledge and for young people to move back to

10. Discussion (not captured)

-End of Day One-

Go to Cultural Landscape Management: Day Two