The Role of Cultural Heritage in Landscape Conservation

Brenda Barrett, Editor | Eleanor Mahoney, Associate Editor | Deanna Beacham, Outreach Assistant

March/April 2023 | Vol. 12 No. 3

On the Trail of the Nature Culture Journey

For decades, there has been a global conversation on the need to integrate cultural and natural values into conservation practice, breaking down the barriers across disciplines. In recent years, this dialogue has gained even more momentum, creating an opportunity to summarize some key milestones that have pushed the exchange forward. The IUCN-sponsored World Conservation Congress in Hawai’i (Sept. 2016) launched a purposeful Nature/Culture Journey to bring together the best ideas on the topic. This dialogue was then continued with a more explicitly cultural focus at the ICOMOS General Assembly in Delhi (Dec. 2017). In November 2018, US ICOMOS took the next step by sponsoring the symposium Forward Together: A Culture-Nature Journey Towards More Effective Conservation in a Changing World at the Presidio in San Francisco. At the event, participants shared ideas on effective and sustainable conservation approaches that bridged longstanding disciplinary divides. The 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal convened a Nature and Culture Summit to generate still more new pathways to collaboration. Finally, right around the corner (September 2023), is the ICOMOS General Assembly in Sydney, which will feature a whole track on nature and culture. The journey continues.

About Us

The Living Landscape Observer is a website, blog and monthly e-newsletter that offers commentary and information on the emerging field of large landscape conservation.

Look Back and Learn

Rural Landscapes and Integrated Management

In rural landscapes, nature and culture intersect in myriad ways. This NatureCultures dialogue explores what different world landscapes can teach us about taking integrative approaches to conservation. It offers examples of how to bring together diverse values, disciplines, and aims. Spanning a vast area of the planet’s surface, these landscapes and waterscapes serve as the foundation of economic livelihoods and food security worldwide, while also encompassing an array of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Luna Valley Farm

Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area

Decorah Iowa USA

Cultural Heritage in Rural Landscapes

Recently, there has been a fair amount of writing and research on the contribution that rural and traditional working landscapes can make to landscape resilience, sustainability, and ecological diversity - all factors that play an important part in addressing climate change. The role that cultural values might play in conserving these landscapes, however, has not received significant attention. Reviewing the designation programs for cultural landscapes is one way of teasing out the elements of significance in these places. The World Heritage criteria that most directly applies to working landscapes states that cultural landscapes are sites where the interaction between people and their environment is considered to be of outstanding universal value. A closer examination of the people part of the equation is warranted.

The Monument Relocation, Removal, and Reinterpretation Toolkit

The United States Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (World Heritage USA) has launched an initiative, with funding from The Mellon Foundation, to develop the Monuments Toolkit. The program, which includes a website and app, offers guidance on addressing the complex histories and contemporary meanings of monuments of oppression. Upon completion, the toolkit will have interactive maps, resource pages, decision guides, blogs, podcasts, and more. The website already has significant content and for up-to-date information follow the project on their Facebook page.

NPS Connected Conservation Webinars

This engaging monthly webinar series highlights specific tools that a park, National Park Service program, or an external partner might use to further landscape-scale conservation. Webinar themes include trails and rivers, environmental justice, cultural resources, and partnerships. Visit the program website for a full list of offerings.

Aerial view of the Tucson Mitigation Corridor, showing crossing structures over the Central Arizona Project canal. Bureau of Reclamation.

News and Notes

In March 2023, the administration issued Guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on Ecological Connectivity and Wildlife Corridors to combat habitat fragmentation and degradation from climate change. This policy casts a wide net encouraging broad collaboration and partnerships both among Federal agencies and with Tribes, states, territories, other nations, private landowners, local governments, and non-governmental organizations. This guidance is step forward by the federal government toward working at a landscape scale.

Upcoming Events & Webinars

ICOMOS 2023 Triennial General Assembly, August 31 to September 9 2023, in Sydney, Australia. Registration is open.

Nation Trust's Past Forward Preservation Conference November 8-10, 2023, in Washington DC Sign up for more information.

NATURE, CULTURE,COMMUNITY www.livinglandscapeobserver.net

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