C O N T E X T 1 2 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 41 Conference report: BTU Cottbus, Germany World heritage and the world’s resources Dennis Rodwell writes: Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) in Cottbus, 125 kilometres south east of Berlin, was founded in 1991. Its inter-disciplinary world heritage master’s programme, the first course in Germany to be taught in English, was established in 1999. The programme is supported among others by UNESCO and the German Academic Exchange Service. The course has so far attracted graduates from over 50 countries. A PhD programme began last year. In June, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the university, the association of World Heritage Studies Alumni (www.iawhp.com) organised its first conference, ‘World Heritage and Sustainable Development’. The list of speakers included the president (Gustavo Araoz) and vice president (Kristal Buckley) of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Gustavo Araoz, in his speech in the session ‘Conservation and Managing Change’, encapsulated the shifts from the ‘prevent change at all costs’ mantra of Ruskin, ‘the most reactionary and recalcitrant of conservationists’, to today’s challenges of managing change, a concept with which many in the ICOMOS old guard are still struggling (see ‘Signs of a revitalised, more relevant, ICOMOS’, Context 107, November 2008). Araoz referred to the step change from a museological approach, obsessed with extant material fabric, to today’s recognition that the survival and continuity of heritage values resides at least as much in intangible traditions and expressions as in fixed products. This reinforces a dynamic rather than static articulation of heritage, one that respects the intent and context that determines cultural identity, and engages with rather than excludes local communities from their own heritage places. Araoz urged heritage professionals to define tools for this new reality, without which heritage values are at serious threat from the homogenising effects of globalisation and over-exploitation by tourism. Properties on the UNESCO world heritage list, which Araoz characterised as ‘an aristocracy of sites’, constitute simply as the fourth pillar, but as a driver for sustainable development. Acknowledging the definitions of conservation and place in the Australian Burra Charter, and the absence of separation in the traditions of indigenous peoples between culture and nature, she spoke of ‘closing the gap’ through the vehicles of education and global partnerships for environmental sustainability. Referring to some of the negative aspects of the World Heritage Convention, including benefits often not being transferred to local communities, Buckley joined other speakers in referring to the oft-ignored Article 5 in the 1972 Convention. This obliges signatory state parties, throughout their territories, ‘to adopt a general policy which aims to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programmes’. Araoz underscored this by reminding his audience that ICOMOS’s mission was not restricted to ‘world heritage’, but embraced the complement of the cultural heritage of the world. And, he said, in making the transition from a traditional curatorial role, through society’s definitions of heritage, to synergy with the processes of human development, ICOMOS was seeking to strengthen the links between world heritage and sustainable development. The inner courtyard of a regenerated tenement in the artists’ quarter of Dresden a miniscule proportion of the natural and cultural heritage of the world, and attract a disproportionate amount of specialist and financial resources. Primordially exclusive rather than inclusive, how can the 1972 UNESCOWorld Heritage Convention be reconciled with the eight Millennium Development Goals quantified by the United Nations in 2000 and their emphasis on a raft of poverty-reduction targets? Kristal Buckley highlighted 2010 UN resolutions and associated literature that affirm culture not The regenerated former manufacturing district of Plagwitz in Leipzig
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