After two decades of debates, deliberations and developments on the identification, valorization and conservation of Cultural Landscapes, since their significance for communities around the world was recognized and formalized through the World Heritage Convention of UNESCO in 1992, finally a book has been published that provides an overview of knowledge and experience gained in a significant number of countries outside Europe in the day‐to‐day management of this important category of heritage. Other than a publication by UNESCO, or experts commissioned by this Organization, Managing Cultural Landscapes edited by Ken Taylor and Jane Lennon is a timely and much needed book on the key issues facing government officials, heritage professionals and local communities involved in the safeguarding and development of this highly relevant but often non‐recognized or under‐valued asset for community identity and sustenance.
Both editors are Professors in Australia – Ken Taylor at the Australian National University and Jane Lennon at Deakin University – a country where much innovative thinking on heritage management has come from over the past years, and both display their substantial knowledge of and experience in the subject, which radiates through their individual contributions as well as through their analyses and selection of papers. Contributors to this volume include well‐known experts in the international field of heritage conservation, which adds to the strength and authority of the book.
The publication aims to meet four objectives, including putting forward “critical discussion […] of how the concept of cultural landscapes applies in diverse contexts across the globe”; broadening the notion to embrace the complete roster of landscape types, from “rural settings […] to historic urban landscapes”; “examining critical issues of identity, maintenance of traditional skills and knowledge bases […] and new technologies”; and “fostering international debate with interdisciplinary appeal”; all serving to discuss how the cultural landscape concept can be a useful management tool (Taylor and Lennon, pp. 3‐4). In facilitating this, the papers are divided over four parts, being the Emergence of Cultural Landscape Concepts (Part 1), Managing Asia‐Pacific Cultural Landscapes (Part 2), New Applications (Part 3) and Future Challenges (Part 4).
Although the book is not specific to World Heritage Cultural Landscapes, i.e. those recognized as having Outstanding Universal Value for all humankind, practically all contributions refer to the 1972 Convention and its importance in galvanizing international debate and efforts in the protection and conservation of this heritage category. When going through the book it turns out that in practice the threats and challenges to Cultural Landscape conservation and management are virtually the same everywhere, something which is confirmed also through the Periodic Reporting exercise of the World Heritage Committee (WHC‐12/36COM/10A), a cyclical and mandatory exercise for signatory countries to the World Heritage Convention on their implementation of the Convention and the state of conservation of their properties listed as World Heritage. However, what becomes also apparent is that the solutions devised are in most cases highly specific and generated from within the site through a thorough analysis and assessment of the complex situation on the ground with the commitment and engagement of a wide variety of stakeholders, both at the national and local level. This makes for fascinating reading indeed, but also carries a potentially discouraging message for those seeking solutions: there's no quick fix and no one‐size‐fits‐all approach to the management of Cultural Landscapes.
For starters, in the various countries of the Asia‐Pacific region the concept of Cultural Landscape, as it has been formulated in Western Europe and North America, is either poorly understood or simply non‐existing, as the different papers on the situation in China (by Feng Han, pp. 90‐108), Japan (by Nobuko Inaba, pp. 109‐129), Melanesia (by Chris Ballard and Meredith Wilson, pp.130‐153), India (by Nalini Thakur, pp. 154‐172), Thailand (by Tiamsoon Sirisrisak and Natsuko Akagawa, pp. 173‐191) or the Philippines (by Augusto Villalon, pp. 291‐307) show. However, what constitutes the essence of a Cultural Landscape, i.e. the strong and undividable inter‐connection between the natural, human and spiritual worlds with an intricate layering of values and meaning, is in all these countries very well understood, because it is part of age‐old traditions and belief systems – indeed, belonging to the realm of intangible heritage – which in turn, and paradoxically, is much less understood in the West, as is shown in the paper on Canada in particular (by Thomas Andrews and Susan Buggey, pp. 253‐271), and on the USA (by Robert Melnick and Nora Mitchell, pp. 232‐252) and Germany (by Marie‐Theres Albert and Benedicte Gaillard, pp. 325‐344) to a lesser extent.
In dealing with “the symbolism of the memories, ideas and associations inherent in their very existence, as well as to the tangible material patterns and structures that represent how the landscape has been, and is continually actively used, shaped and changed” (Taylor, p. 27), heritage professionals and local communities in different countries have devised different approaches to Cultural Landscape valorization and management. In Japan, for instance, an expansion “from spot conservation to area conservation to cover the larger area including the surrounding landscapes” (Inaba, p. 118) was made possible first through the establishment of a comprehensive law in 1950 that unified and integrated different heritage laws, including an introduction of the intangible heritage category, followed by the introduction of folk‐cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, in 1954. In India, by contrast, the concept of an “archaeological park, a category of cultural park as a tool to protect and manage complex archaeological and heritage sites” was introduced in order to move away “from the current monument‐centric approach” (Thakur, p. 170), while in Thailand experiments are ongoing through the Thailand Cultural Environment Project (TCEP) “to apply the Danish system of cultural environment protection to cases in Thailand” (Sirisrisak and Akagawa, p. 183). In Canada local community elders and the local historic site committee in collaboration with the national authority of Parks Canada developed “a commemorative integrity statement – rooted in Inuit traditional beliefs and practices and respect for the Elders – that describes the health or wholeness of the national historic site as well as a conservation and presentation report that elaborates its management objectives” (Andrews and Buggey, p. 255), which could be a useful tool for other categories of heritage as well (see the Editorial of this issue).
While of course some minor points of critique could be put forward, such as the absence of cases and practices in either Latin America or Africa (a potential follow‐up volume to be published?), or a slightly uneven quality among the selected papers where it concerns references to sources of information (needed for purposes of verification and further research), the overall conclusion has to be that the book is delivering in full on its stated objectives. It deals with a thorough explanation of the concept, important issues in conservation and management and insights gained in various parts of the world, which should be useful for consideration of professionals, administrators and policy makers. If the title of Managing Cultural Landscapes is raising expectations of understanding the dynamics and complexities of safeguarding and utilizing this heritage resource for the betterment of local communities against the odds of fast‐paced socio‐economic change and globalization, than this book will indeed inspire the reader.
