Culturally Natural or Naturally Cultural? Exploring the relationship between nature and culture through World Heritage Editors: Jonathan Larwood, Sarah France and Chris Mahon National Committee United Kingdom The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN or other participating organisations. Published by: IUCN National Committee UK Copyright ©2017 International Union for Conservation of Nature National Committee for the United Kingdom Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorised without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior permission of the copyright holder Citation: Jonathan Larwood, Sarah France and Chris Mahon (Eds) (2017). Culturally Natural or Naturally Cultural? Exploring the relationship between nature and culture through World Heritage. United Kingdom: IUCN National Committee UK Cover photos: Durham Castle and Cathedral © J D Whitakker; Giant’s Causeway © NT Images/Ben Selway; Wasdale in the Lake District © Andrew Locking; Salt’s Mill in Saltaire © Chris Mahon; Stonehenge in Wiltshire © Historic England; Studley Royal water garden © NT Images/ Jonathan Pow Back cover: Kingfisher perching on Neptune at Studley Royal water garden © Sandra Sweeney Layout by: Miller Design, UK Printed by: Yourprint on FSC-certified recycled paper Available from: IUCN National Committee UK Secretariat c/o Grosvenor Villa Village Road Rhosesmor Mold Flintshire CH7 6PJ United Kingdom www.iucnuk.wordpress.com www.worldheritageuk.org Culturally Natural or Naturally Cultural? Exploring the relationship between nature and culture through World Heritage Editors: Jonathan Larwood, Sarah France and Chris Mahon St Kilda is the only World Heritage Site in the UK inscribed as a ‘mixed’ site for its natural and cultural heritage © National Trust for Scotland Contents FOREWORDS iv Tim Badman IUCN iv Kerstin Manz UNESCO v Mick Stanley Former Mayor of Ripon vi INTRODUCTION vii Culturally natural or naturally cultural? Exploring the relationship between nature and culture through World Heritage Jonathan Larwood and Sarah France vii Map: The United Kingdom’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites viii 1. OVERVIEW 1 Culture and Nature – two sides of the same World Heritage coin Adrian Phillips and Christopher Young 1 National Trust: an unnatural history David Bullock 9 Greater than the sum of its parts – nature, culture and the unnatural work of Historic England Vince Holyoak 13 Geodiversity – a cultural template Jonathan Larwood 16 Nature in the UK’s World Heritage Sites Chris Mahon and Alma Roberts 19 2. NATURAL WORLD HERITAGE SITES 24 The Giant’s Causeway: culturally natural or naturally cultural? Max Bryant 24 Is it all about the rocks? Sam Rose 26 3. CULTURAL WORLD HERITAGE SITES 30 Fountains and Studley Royal: “In all, let Nature never be forgot” Sarah France 30 Bath: a therapeutic landscape Tony Crouch 35 “The beauties of the neighbourhood…” Saltaire in the landscape Helen Thornton and Danny Jackson 38 Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site: Managing a cultural landscape in all but inscription Sarah Simmonds 41 Hadrian’s Wall and Hadrian’s Wall Country – a heritage landscape Nigel Mills 47 Creswell Crags – from the sublime to the revelatory Roger Shelley 51 The Lake District: the case for inscription as a World Heritage cultural landscape John Hodgson 54 4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 59 Discussion and conclusions Jonathan Larwood, Sarah France, Chris Mahon and Alma Roberts 59 Appendix 1 Participants 62 Appendix 2 Definitions 63 Forewords Tim Badman, Director, IUCN World Heritage Programme The World Heritage Convention is the leading international Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate instrument for conservation bringing together nature and change, the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction, culture. Yet a divide between the two fields is still often and Habitat III’s New Urban Agenda. It also highlights the observed. Together with partners, the International Union for importance of interlinked nature-culture approaches to Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the advisory body on nature improve conservation outcomes, foster cultural diversity to the Convention – have witnessed growing commitments and support human well-being, while advancing towards bridging this gap in recent years. sustainability objectives. The “Culturally natural or naturally cultural?” event in 2014, The Congress also marked the launch of World Heritage which this publication celebrates, is testimony to that. Three Leadership, a six-year joint project between IUCN and the years on, highlighting the achievements of this event is as International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the relevant as ever to support the momentum of key efforts Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and Norway. The currently underway to bring nature and culture practices project aims to integrate nature and culture by building the closer. Underpinning these efforts is the acknowledgement skills of practitioners working through the Convention, taking that the Convention needs to address fully the rights of local into account the totality of conservation practice so World communities and indigenous peoples. Heritage can provide leadership to achieve innovation and excellence within the sector of conservation. In September 2016, IUCN held its landmark World Heritage Congress in Hawai‘i, USA. One could not have picked a Growing commitment and interest to work towards a more more fitting location to further our understanding of the unified nature-culture approach is also evident in the IUCN- integral relationship of nature and culture. ICOMOS Connecting Practice initiative, supported by The Christensen Fund, focused on building joint experience and As part of the Nature-Culture Journey for the Congress, new working methods in the work of both organisations delegates joined efforts to produce a set of commitments within the World Heritage Convention. All of this work is recognising the interconnection between nature and culture. moving forward, with a Culture-Nature Journey planned at Coordinated jointly by IUCN and the International Council on the ICOMOS General Assembly in December 2017. Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), with the support of US/ ICOMOS, ICCROM, UNESCO and a range of partners, the Bridging the gap between natural and cultural heritage journey provided a thematic programme of Congress events practice remains a challenge. But it is a challenge more and gathered input into a single statement, which celebrates and more people and organisations are willing to embrace. the diversity of perspectives on how most landscapes attest Developing integrated nature-culture solutions will mean to the intertwinement of natural and cultural heritage. that together we can multiply our impact for conservation. In this document, titled “Mālama Honua – to care for our island Earth”, the journey’s participants call on the nature and culture sectors to put forward unified nature-culture solutions to support the achievement of the UN Sustainable iv Culturally Natural or Naturally Cultural? Kerstin Manz, Programme Specialist, Europe and North America Unit of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre1 Kerstin Manz © German Commission for UNESCO/Heuser Since its inception in 1972, the World Heritage Convention their natural heritage sites and of natural heritage on their has been a precursor by uniting the protection of both cultural heritage sites, and to identify benefits, barriers and cultural and natural heritage in one single international treaty. opportunities of such an approach in management practice. While this remains true, the actual implementation of It is hoped that the concept of this conference and its the Convention was originally based on separate sets of findings feed into international discussions so as to inspire criteria for cultural and natural heritage and continues to and benefit World Heritage Sites around the world. enlist the expertise from two distinct advisory bodies – ICOMOS for cultural and IUCN for natural sites. Cultural and Whether a site is “culturally natural” or “naturally cultural” is natural values have thus largely been handled separately. a matter of perspective. Switching perspectives can be eye- Consequently, broadening understanding of values and opening and enhance the development of joint conservation developing conservation practices for cultural and natural and management tools. The initiative of this conference sites took place in parallel rather than in conjunction. The therefore contributes in a timely manner to discussions at management of mixed World Heritage Sites challenged the international World Heritage community level: connecting these approaches, and helped to advance common practices in cultural and natural heritage conservation and approaches to heritage conservation. Moreover, the concept management is a major challenge in order to ensure that of World Heritage cultural landscapes allowed us to better World Heritage Sites are better understood and thus better recognise “the combined works of nature and humans”. protected, and, by serving as good practice examples, make the Convention even more forceful. While from the international community’s perspective, each World Heritage Site is recognised for very unique features, local communities generally cherish a much wider notion of values. Beyond the protection