Author: Katharina CONRADIN
E-mail: katharina.conradin@students.unibe.ch
Department: Centre for Development and Environment
Institution: University of Berne, Switzerland
Title: Natural World Heritage Sites, Tourism & Regional Development
Abstract:
UNESCO World Heritage sites are sites with an outstanding and universal value for
humanity. The corresponding denomination has so far been attributed more than 900 times
to sites of outstanding universal values to humanity worldwide. Despite this popularity, it
has so not yet been comprehensively researched which effects the attribution of the World
Heritage site status actually induces. Looking specifically at natural world heritage sites,
protected area designations (of which also World Heritage can be considered one) are
discussed as a promising strategy to promote sustainable regional development, precisely
because they allow to guide regional development in a certain direction (e.g. as model
regions for sustainable regional development, where conservation and development are
inclusive and balanced, and not exclusionary concepts).
The World Heritage label contains in itself one of the core thoughts of sustainability, namely
to preserve a specific good of high value in such a way that it is still available for generations
to come. Nevertheless, the knowledge base on the effects induced by World Heritage sites in
regard to sustainable regional development is very thin. The majority of published work on
World Heritage sites and their effects are single case studies, lacking epistemological
consistency and comparability. Often, they are furthermore commissioned studies that
focus on one specific aspect only; and frequently there is no clear differentiation between
expected effects and real impacts. However, maybe the biggest gap with regard to the
effects that can be deduced to World Heritage listing is that this diverse set of studies, with
their individual backgrounds, goals and sponsors, cannot offer valid conclusions regarding
the factors that determine effect delivery.
The proposed paper will address some of these issues, based on a triangulation of research
methods, and will hence provide important data on the impacts of World Heritage
denomination on tourism and regional development. The paper summarises the results of
the following steps taken as a basis for a PhD thesis:
(1) In a first step, a database is formed combining the dispersed data available on World
Heritage sites. This data is combined with an assessment in the form of a questionnairebased electronic sent to the managements of World Heritage sites. Within this assessment,
which focuses specifically on Natural World Heritage sites, it is researched whether and to
which extent the attribution of the World heritage status influences sustainable regional
development processes (in the areas of governance, conservation, social issues, research
and awareness, and economic development processes).
(2) This data is corroborated by numerous case studies from Europe, East Africa and South
Asia carried out within the framework of the research project “Benchmarking World
Heritage & Tourism” in 2011. Within this project, an extensive benchmarking system was
developed that should facilitate a comparative, indicator-based quality assessment of World
Heritage sites with regard to how tourism is handled and the sites’ long-term preservation
ensured. The study combines qualitative interviews with the World Heritage site
management, as well as tourism and regional development stakeholders. This approach has
allowed generating a set of comparable data on World Heritage sites, while not neglecting
individual and qualitative information on each site.
(3) Taking the outcomes of these two approaches, in particular the empirical analysis, the
paper will furthermore suggest a typology of World Heritage sites (including natural,
cultural and mixed sites) depending on the respective tourism intensity and the socioeconomic development status of the surrounding regions.
All in all, the proposed work will generate a comprehensive database on World Heritage
sites which is today non-existent. The absence of basic data, as well as the lack of knowledge
in regard to the potential effects that are induced by World Heritage denomination, in
particular in terms of tourism, are today some of the main obstacles in regard to developing
comprehensive policies on sustainable tourism and world heritage sites; the research
forming the basis of this paper could be an important step in addressing some of these
challenges.
Author Bio:
Katharina Conradin has studied Geography, Environmental Sciences and English at the
University of Basel (Switzerland) and Freiburg i. Br. (Germany) and graduated with a M.A.
in Geography in 2008. She worked for an environmental consulting agency until 2011 and
then became the director of mountain wilderness, an NGO for the protection of the Alps. Her
major fields of interest are environmental conservation and sustainable development,
which was the reason for her to start a PhD thesis addressing « World Heritage Sites and
Sustainable Regional Development » at the Centre for Development and Environment at the
University of Bern, Switzerland in 2011, foreseen to be terminated in 2014.