Protecting the South—Promoting the North? World Natural Heritage Status in the Global North and South

Abstract

Since the World Heritage (WH) Convention was established in 1972, many sites have attained this prestigious conservation label. Today, World Natural Heritage (WNH) status is no longer only about conservation, but raises additional expectations in regard to tourism and regional development. Yet on a global scale, little is known about the effects of having WNH status. This article presents the results of a global survey carried out in 2012 of more than 60% of all WNH sites, and reveals remarkable findings: not only is the effectiveness of WNH status higher in the global South than in the global North, but these regional discrepancies are based on differences in the criteria used in granting WNH status, as well as dissimilar understandings of WNH status. The results highlight fundamental disparities in regard to WNH status and, as such, introduce issues that have so far not been part of the WNH discourse.

Keywords:

• conservation
• effects
• Global North
• Global South
• regional development
• sustainable development
• World Heritage
• World Natural Heritage

Notes

The term “sustainable development” was first mentioned in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the WH Convention in 1994. It remained rather unspecific, however, with regard to how WNH sites should contribute to such development.

Within this context, a remark on the background of survey respondents is important. While more than 60% of the Southern respondents indicated conservation as their primary professional background, only 26% of the Northern respondents stated the same. It is likely that managers with a conservation background judge issues related to conservation more critically than, for example, those with a tourism or regional development background (4% in the South, 15% in the North). Note that the survey was conducted anonymously to avoid influencing possible answers.

It must be noted that it is not UNESCO that selects the sites to be included in the list; rather, nominations are prepared by national bodies themselves.

The numbers quoted here are unique identification codes given to the completed questionnaires and to the interviews. N refers to a site from the global North, and S to a site from the global South.