No. 21 (MAy/June 1999) 

1. World Heritage and youth: a two-way street
2. Interview with Mounir Bouchenaki
3. Guidelines on cultural landscapes to be prepared
4. World Heritage in the hands and hearts of young people
5. Brief notes
6. Experts meeting on African cultural landscapes
7. Calendar

The World Heritage Convention grew from the desire to safeguard our heritage so we can pass it on to future generations. With this in mind, UNESCO has taken its responsibility towards young people very seriously, initiating a range of activities which it hopes will inspire them to become active ambassadors of World Heritage ideals and values.

The aim is twofold: to inform and educate young people about World Heritage issues, and to instill in them an awareness of their own important role and obligations in this regard. “In our souls, we must stress that World Heritage belongs to us, not to say it, but to do it, not just today but for the next years and even centuries: This is our responsibility as a young generation,” said Romesh Tripathi, a student from Nepal who attended the First World Heritage Youth Forum in Bergen, Norway.

In 1994, the World Heritage Centre and UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) launched the interregional project “Young People’s Participation in World Heritage Preservation and Promotion”. At the First World Heritage Youth Forum in Bergen a year after the start of this project, students and teachers from all over the world expressed their keen interest, enthusiasm and dedication to strive for World Heritage conservation, but voiced concern over the lack of educational material available on the subject.

Out of this concern was born the educational resource kit, “World Heritage in young hands”, released in English and French earlier this year. The kit, which contains nearly 200 pages of information, photos and activities, is one step in the long process of making young people more aware about World Heritage issues (see page 3). The kit was produced in collaboration with the Rhône-Poulenc Foundation (France), with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the World Heritage Fund.

Reaching out to teachers of young people has implications far beyond the classroom. If a lesson is interesting and taught well, and relevant to their lives, students will go home and share what they have learned with their parents, brothers and sisters, and friends. The “World Heritage in young hands” kit contains many suggestions for practical activities, designed to make heritage protection a living, daily reality.

“As we prepare to enter the third millennium,” writes the Director-General of UNESCO in the Preface to the resource kit, “it has become all the more urgent to impart ethical and humanistic values to children and young people so that they and future generations can be spared the evils of famine, war, environmental degradation and the loss of human dignity.”

It is hoped that an early and solid appreciation of World Heritage issues, as promoted by this kit and UNESCO’s other educational activities, will act as a locomotive, pulling the train of tolerance and world peace.

Earlier this year, Mounir Bouchenaki was asked by the Director-General of UNESCO to take over as Director of the World Heritage Centre, on the retirement of Bernd von Droste zu Hülshoff, the Centre’s first director. Born in Tlemcen, Algeria, Mr Bouchenaki was trained first as a teacher and then an archaeologist before joining UNESCO’s Culture Sector in 1981. He was named director of the Cultural Heritage Division in 1992.

The World Heritage Newsletter asked Mr Bouchenaki about his first four months in office. We asked him about his background and how it prepared him for his present duties, and how he managed to balance his many responsibilities within UNESCO. Mr Bouchenaki spoke about the World Heritage Centre’s current priorities and its plans and expectations for the future. He also spoke about how new technologies were affecting World Heritage work in general and the way the Centre is able to meet the many challenges it faces today.

When he took over as Director of the World Heritage Centre on 1 February 1999, Mounir Bouchenaki found himself among old friends. As head of the Division of Cultural Heritage in UNESCO’s Culture Sector for the past seven years, he had participated in nearly all the World Heritage Bureau and Committee meetings since the Centre’s creation in 1992.
This year is “a very full year, and also a very crucial one,” says Mr Bouchenaki, with six statutory meetings planned for 1999. There are the routine matters of new inscriptions to the World Heritage List and state of conservation reports to take care of, plus the exceptional matter of the uranium mine operating in an enclave of Kakadu National Park in Australia, the subject of an extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee in July 1999.

Trained first as a teacher in history and geography — “grouped together in the old French tradition” —- in his native Algeria, Mr Bouchenaki was always fascinated by ancient history and archaeology, which he later studied at the University of Aix-en-Provence in France and the University of Rome.

Keeping in touch with students

His teacher’s sensitivities have served him well at UNESCO. “Since I came to UNESCO in 1982, with my teaching background and finding myself with other teachers...my contacts with the Education Sector have always been very positive,” he says. These contacts are especially welcome these days, as education and youth are top priorities for the Centre.

As Director of Antiquities, Museums and Historic Monuments at the Algerian Ministry of Culture and Information from 1975 to 1981, Mr Bouchenaki helped set up a special unit for “teaching through museums”, a programme which linked visits to museums with visits to heritage sites, and which served as a model for other countries.

During this time, he also taught at the University of Algiers. “This allowed me to keep in touch with young people and also made me realise the importance of national policy which incorporates the teaching of history and heritage in school curricula – from primary school to university.”

The educational resource kit, “World heritage in young hands” — part of the UNESCO Special Project, Young People’s Participation in the Preservation and Promotion of World Heritage — is a case in point, and Mr Bouchenaki has taken a special interest in this learning tool since it was launched earlier this year.

Partnerships

The resource kit was produced with the assistance of the French Rhône-Poulenc Foundation. Raising funds outside the traditional state institutions is another of the Centre’s priorities.

Mr Bouchenaki is enthusiastic about partnerships with the private sector “not only because they give us money, but for their technical help. We benefit from their know-how,” he says. Other national and multinational companies — from Electricité de France to Kodak to the German paper company Zanders — are also contributing know-how and money to World Heritage projects.

New technologies, especially in communications, have enriched the Centre’s work by providing information rapidly and relatively cheaply. As for the World Wide Web, he is pleased with the very high — and steadily growing — number of “hits” to the World Heritage Centre web site.

But “it goes beyond the Internet,” Mr Bouchenaki says. “Thanks to the new technologies, the virtual world is giving us the chance to manage the real world better.”

Following a recommendation of the World Heritage Committee that “specific guidelines for the management of cultural landscapes, including both conservation and development” be prepared, taking into account “successful management experiences”, an Expert Meeting on Management Guidelines for Cultural Landscapes was held in Banská Stiavnica, Slovakia, from 1 to 4 June 1999. The experts agreed to produce a single, easy-to-use book, which would include case studies prepared by “regional focal points” in consultation with colleagues in their regions.

The meeting was held at the invitation of the Slovak authorities and was financially supported from the World Heritage Fund. The expert group consisted of representatives from Africa, Arab States, Latin America, North America, Asia/Pacific and Europe, representatives from the advisory bodies (ICOMOS, IUCN, ICCROM), the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Regional case studies were presented during the meeting, emphasising the complexity of cultural landscape sites, encompassing as they do diverse natural and cultural resources. A number of other issues were raised for discussion, including the history of land use.

During the discussion, the particularities of World Heritage cultural landscapes were highlighted, including the need for adequate legislation and management, for which the responsibilities lay with the States Party to the Convention.

The experts group also proposed that funding to support the working group and its members as regional focal points, as well as funding to support regional training for cultural landscape managers should be identified, and that a roster of cultural landscape experts by region should be prepared.

To know, cherish and act. These words sum up the idea behind the educational resource kit for teachers, ”World Heritage in young hands”, recently released by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet).

For more than four years, UNESCO has been working to produce 200 pages of information, photos, student activities, posters and stickers to help secondary school students learn about World Heritage and develop new attitudes and commitment to preserving local and global heritage for present and future generations. From the outset, the production of the resource kit was made possible through assistance from the Rhône-Poulenc Foundation (France), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the World Heritage Fund.

An international working group, convened by UNESCO in April 1997, prepared the preliminary elements for the first draft. These were then worked into the present document by the UNESCO team consisting of Elizabeth Khawajkie, Breda Pavlic and Sarah Titchen. The draft was reviewed and amended in the light of comments from Bernd von Droste, the World Heritage Centre's Director at the time, and the participants at the Beijing World Heritage Youth Forum, held in September 1997.

Recognising cultural diversity

Young people recognise the need to understand their own culture and environment in order to understand others. Those who attended the Second International World Heritage Youth Forum held in Japan in December 1998 clearly expressed their desire to learn about the history and diversity of the world’s natural and cultural heritage: “We need to have knowledge before we can act. Education is the key. The more we know about our heritage sites, the more we appreciate them and do our best to take care of them.”

“Factual, insightful, and sensitive to cultural diversity and minority groups,” is the way Sarah Titchen of the World Heritage Centre and one of the kit’s authors describes this new teaching resource. “And it can be used by any teaching discipline.”

Divided into five thematic areas — the World Heritage Convention; World Heritage and Identity, World Heritage and Tourism, World Heritage and the Environment; World Heritage and a Culture of Peace — the material can be integrated into the curricula of various disciplines such as geography, history, art history, language teaching, science and mathematics. The kit is as useful outside the classroom as inside.

Learning by doing

The kit emphasises learning by doing, and each section contains practical exercises, from suggested role plays and site excursions to community involvement. For example, under World Heritage and a Culture of Peace, students are asked to identify sites where peace treaties have been signed, then express in a creative way what they believe the messages of those sites are.

The section on World Heritage and Environment suggests students become involved in keeping their local environment and heritage sites clean by participating in recycling campaigns.

At this experimental stage, some 2,500 copies in English and 1,500 in French are being made available to schools within UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network. Spanish and Arabic versions are already in preparation. Based on the evaluations and feedback from the pilot users, the kit will be revised and prepared for translation and co-publications with UNESCO Member States. The material will be adapted to local cultures and environments, and include local sites and relevant local and national information.

Although originally designed for secondary school teachers, the cross-disciplinary approach also makes the kit useful for site managers, museum education officers, NGOs and community groups.

The kit “aims to create a bridge between the old publication world and new electronic territories,” say the authors, and includes a guide to interesting Internet sites. But the kit has been created with all users in mind. As ASPnet coordinator Elizabeth Khawajkie points out, “Some of our schools have neither the electricity nor the equipment to show slides or videos. That is why we chose to include 25 large laminated photos of a selection of World Heritage sites.”

The kit is expected to foster ethical values in young people, because, as Ms Khawajkie puts it, “World Heritage not only needs to be in the hands of young people but also in their hearts.”

For more information about “World Heritage in young hands”, contact Julie Hage (j.hage@unesco.org) at the World Heritage Centre.

World Heritage News and Events

Four-million dollar grant for Galapagos Islands The United Nations Foundation Inc. (UNF) has approved US$ 3,999,850 for a project aimed at minimising the impact of invasive species on the endemic biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

Nearly twenty years after its inscription on the World Heritage List, accelerated human settlement, accompanied by the importation of non-native animals and plants, uncontrolled fishing and tourism, appears to be threatening the integrity of the area. Introduction of new species and the depletion of existing ones have disrupted the environment and tended to eradicate the qualities which have always made the Galapagos islands a natural laboratory of evolution.

The four-year project was developed by the World Heritage Centre and the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) in Galapagos, with the support of the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) and other concerned government agencies. The Centre, CDRS and GNPS will continue to co-operate in the execution of the project.

Out of the total amount awarded, US$1,999,850 is an outright grant for specific activities pertaining to the eradication and control of introduced species. The remaining $2 million of the project comprises a challenge grant -- the UNF will provide $1 million subject to the World Heritage Centre and CDRS raising the other $1 million from other sources. The $US2 million will be used to set up an endowment for the long-term conservation of Galapagos.

A thematic experts meeting on African cultural landscapes, held in Tiwi, Kenya from 9 to 14 March 1999, brought together representatives from nine African States Parties to the World Heritage Convention. Discussions and case studies illustrated the diversity of the notion of cultural landscapes in Africa and stressed the link between nature, culture and spirituality.

After visiting the Kaya Forests and the old town of Mombasa on the final day of the meeting, participants adopted by acclamation a series of recommendations which underlined the special nature of cultural landscapes in Africa and pointed out the need to define integrity and authenticity in an African context. They also recommended the inclusion of Kaya on Kenya’s tentative list in view of a future nomination to the World Heritage List.

The Kaya Forests, a remarkable cultural landscape along the coast near Mombasa, is a striking ensemble of sacred woods, protected and traditionally used by nine indigenous tribes. The experts had the opportunity to visit one of the most sacred areas of the forest, and meet with the Elders, who are its custodians.

The meeting, organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office in Nairobi, was attended by experts from Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as representatives from two of the Advisory Bodies (ICOMOS, IUCN) and an observer from the Nordic World Heritage Office. It was the fifth regional thematic expert meeting on cultural landscapes in the world, and was a follow-up to the fourth meeting on Global Strategy in Africa.

Only 30 of the 45 African countries represented in UNESCO have so far signed the World Heritage Convention, and African heritage is under-represented on the World Heritage List — at present, Africa lists 16 cultural, 31 natural and one mixed site. Among the meeting’s objectives was the identification of potential categories of cultural landscapes representative of African culture to contribute towards a better representativity of the List.

Awareness and local involvement

The meeting sought to encourage awareness of the World Heritage Convention and recognition of the category of cultural landscapes by the organizations responsible for the conservation of natural and cultural heritage and the scientific community of the region. It also sought to identify the special aspects of African sites of outstanding universal value with regard to authenticity and integrity. The group expressed its hope that the collaborative links between experts and representatives in Africa and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies would be strengthened.

Discussions highlighted the need to involve local communities in all stages of the inscription process and the management of the sites. The group adopted recommendations concerning the systematic consideration of the cultural and natural values of African sites, recognition of traditional rights to protection and ownership of the sites and their management in a perspective of sustainable development.

The experts also expressed the wish that the conditions of authenticity and integrity be defined from an African point of view, and that the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention include indications concerning the management of cultural landscapes.The need for an interdisciplinary approach in the evaluation of cultural landscapes, as part of the creation of an operational network of African experts, was underlined.