Importance of Maintaining World Heritage Sites for Sustainability

This essay discusses the significance of preserving world heritage sites for sustainability and creating awareness regarding their maintenance. It covers the history, examples, nomination procedure, and negative impact of tourism on these sites. Recommendations for mitigating the negative outcomes of tourism are also provided.

Academic Writing for
Business
and Management

INTRODUCTION
The term World Heritage Site can be referred to as the landmark or region with
legitimate security by the universal settlement directed by United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural organization. These sites are designated by the UNESCO for creating
scientific, historical, remarkable or cultural importance. The preservation of these sites is
taken into consideration because of their universal value for humanity for the existing as well
as future generations (Anatole-Gabriel, 2022). The aim of this essay is to create awareness
regarding the importance of maintenance of world heritage sites by the modern society so as
to ensure their preservation and sustainability for the upcoming generation. The essay will
provide the past history, context and background of world heritage sites with the notion of
their origination. It will cover the examples of various heritage sites and procedure of their
nomination and designation. The essay will also cover the negative impact of world heritage
site taking into consideration the tourism industry. Further, it will also provide relevant
recommendations on mitigation of the negative outcomes of tourism.
TASK
In the year 1954, the Egypt government asserted to create Aswan High Dam due to
which the Future reservoir will as a result deluge a big bounce of the Valley of Nile
comprising of traditional treasure of earliest Nubia and Egypt. Later in 1959, the Egypt and
Sudan government approached UNESCO for facilitating them in protecting the rare and
vanishing sites and monuments. Then the International Campaign was launched by the
Director-General of UNESCO for ensuring the protection of monuments of Nubia in the year
1960. Due to this, the unearthing of various sites had been observed. Almost 50 countries
contributed to the success of campaign by way of providing $40 million when the project cost
was US$80 million (Chauma, and Ngwira, 2022). Thus, UNESCO began a flow convention
for saving cultural heritage with International Council on Monuments and sites (ICMS). The
settlement regarding the safeguard of the universal natural and cultural Heritage is located in
Paris, France. It was established and advanced in a period of seven years. The idea for
safeguarding heritage sites of the world was developed by the US. For the purpose of
preserving the natural and attractive areas and remarkable and cultural sites for existing as
well as future world, a conference in White House was held in 1965 for a Trust of world
Heritage. By efforts of UNESCO and settlement for safeguard of universal natural heritage,
various heritage sites were excavated. For example, Bath i.e. the largest city in England in
the valley of River Avon became World Heritage Site in the year 1987 and thereafter listed to

the transnational World Heritage Site by UNESCO called as the “Great Spa Town of Europe”
in the year 2021. Another example of World Heritage site recognised by UNESCO in 1988 is
The Tower of London in England which is a remarkable and historic castle situated on the
north bank of the Thames River in Central London. It is a cultural site creating value for the
universe for the cultural features like safeguard and monitoring of London city and has a
milestone positioning. The site is embedding good sustainable procurement practices by
managing energy, water and waste management and reducing greenhouse gas emissions as
well. Blenheim Palace is also a natural and cultural site that is country house in Woodstock,
Oxfordshire, England. It was recognised by UNESCO as a Conservation domain in the year
1987. The site has various parks and gardens promoting natural heritage and thereby
sustainability. The world heritage committee that takes decisions regarding listing the sires to
World Heritage list is made up of 21 countries. The world heritage sites are created according
to the five steps. Firstly, a tentative list is prepared by the respective country for preparing a
list of its significant natural, artistic, cultural and traditional heritage sites situated within the
borders of the country, the world heritage committee cannot take into consideration any
nomination without the inclusion of property in the state party’s tentative list (Duval, 2022).
Secondly, the nomination file is created for nomination to be submitted to the Heritage
committee. Third step is evaluation of nominated party by the advisory bodies such as
International council on Monuments and Sites and International Union for conservation of
nature etc. Then, the World heritage committee decides after nomination and evaluation,
whether to inscribe the site in World Heritage list or not. Lastly, the criteria for selection is
provided for the sites for being involved in the list of World Heritage such as they should be
of exceptional value to the Universe. They are nominated on the basis of four natural and six
cultural criteria (AlMuraikhi and et. al., 2021). For example, after fulfilling the evaluation,
nomination and selection criteria of four natural criteria, Royal Botanic gardens of London
was selected and inscribed by the World Heritage Committee in the list of heritage sites in
July, 2003. It is because of its exclusive history, diversified landscape and ironic architectural
heritage.
The cultural and Heritage buildings, sites and monuments are leftovers of the
predecessors of a particular culture followed in any country. They are the essential source of
information for tracing the evaluation of society as a civilisation. Various heritage structures
have stood the test of time. Heritage is considered to be a valuable factor for the
empowerment of local communities and for enabling the vulnerable groups for participating

in cultural as well as social life. Heritage promotion also facilitates in providing time-tested
solutions for the prevention and reconciliation of conflicts. Preservation of historical and
heritage sites has a major significance because of the addition of value, character and
differentiation to the place, area or local community and thus facilitates in maintaining
identification (He, Zhao and Yu, 2021). Heritage has a positive influence on various elements
in terms of community development. Protecting the historical monuments like The Tower of
London, Bath, Blenheim Palace, other aircrafts and buildings will put the individuals and
communities in touch with the past for ensuring that the people never forget their roots and
the history of their cities. For example, The Tower of London has a universal value and it
also provides substantial value to the city. The Social benefit to the world heritage site is that
the site gets immediate international recognition that helps in promoting the already protected
sites. The sites are also providing the benefits of boosting Tourism and demonstrating the
social responsibility. For example, The Tower of London has depicted its social responsibly
by way of raising concerns for the waste management and reduction of the greenhouse gas
emissions. Being listed as World heritage Site has many benefits including the economic
benefits like obtaining funds from others such as world Heritage Funds for ensuring their
conservation under certain conditions. Apart from this, as they are universally recognized,
they enjoy the Tourist visits and get economic benefit by obtaining the foreign currency
(Pathak and et. al., 2021). For example, the city of Bath, due to its cultural food, bath and
artistics with a heritage bath aircraft, is enjoyed by the tourists as a result if which its
economic value is getting increased. The cultural benefit to Heritage sites is that they do not
only contribute to sustainable development but also enhance the inhabitants’ sense of identity
and a feeling of connection for them. For example, Blenheim Palace is promoting culture
because of its historic and architectural interest due to its parkland setting that is essential for
the protection of building.
The negative impact of Heritage sites is that on being attended by the Tourists, the
Heritage Tourism can cause deficiency of considering the heritage and culture of the region
of the broad community due to insufficient or misappropriate demonstration. It reduces the
safeguard and preservation of traditional and artistic heritage ultimately. Taking into
consideration Tourism industry, it can exploit the cultural resources, can cause environment
degradation and can also cause considerable socio-cultural related impacts. In context with
Tourism, it puts pressure on natural resources by way of over-consumption and frequently at
the regions where the resources are limited. It also sets massive pressure on the utilisation of

local land and thereby leads to destruction of soil, increase in pollution, loss of natural
habitats and threat to the species that are in danger of extinction (Alghafri and Mohammad,
2022). For example, to see the Tower of London, Tourists come in crowds causing traffic
jams and overcrowding. Due to the tourism factor on the World heritage sites like Bath,
Blenheim Palace, etc., the charges are increased by the local shops because tourists are
generally more prosperous than the locals residing there that pose challenges to social as well
as cultural factors. So, it is recommended to the Heritage sites like The Tower of London
and The Palace of Westminster in London to adopt their social responsibility do as to reduce
their negative impact on social, cultural and environment factors. For example, the
restaurants at these sires must eliminate all the endangered species for their menus and they
must provide cultural benefits to the communities living there for the upliftment of their
lifestyle.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be analyzed that the World Heritage Sites are selected to
the World Heritage Lists by UNESCO on passing the selection criteria regarding natural as
well as cultural factors. The major contemporary consideration is to safeguard the World
Heritage Sites and to ensure their preservation as well as protection so as to put the modern
societies in touch with the past so that they do not forget the history of their cities. It is
important to maintain the world heritage sites as they add value and uniqueness to the
communities, place or areas where people live and thereby it creates a sense of identity. So, it
becomes important for the modern society to maintain the world heritage sites.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Alghafri, M.A. and Mohammad, M.A., 2022. Syrian Cultural Heritage Conservation and
Management for Future Generations: Issues and Challenges. Conservation of
Architectural Heritage, pp.273-279.
AlMuraikhi, N., and et. al., 2021, July. Virtual Reality for Rich Interaction with Cultural
Heritage Sites. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp.
319-328). Springer, Cham.
Anatole-Gabriel, I., 2022. 23 The search for virtue. Routledge Handbook of Sustainable
Heritage, p.348.
Chauma, E.C. and Ngwira, C., 2022. Managing a World Heritage Site in Malawi: do
residents’ sentiments matter?. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 17(2), pp.142-157.
Duval, M., 2022. To what degree does a UNESCO World Heritage Site listing improve the
conservation of heritage sites? Insights from the case of the Maloti-Drakensberg
World Heritage Site (South Africa-Lesotho). International Journal of Heritage
Studies, 28(3), pp.376-399.
He, G., Zhao, X. and Yu, M., 2021. Exploring the multiple disturbances of karst landscape in
Guilin World Heritage Site, China. Catena, 203, p.105349.
Pathak, R., and et. al., 2021. An object detection approach for detecting damages in heritage
sites using 3-D point clouds and 2-D visual data. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 48,
pp.74-82.