Report: Ancient ruins worldwide 'on verge of vanishing'
By Mark Tutton for CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Three historic sites in the Middle East are "on the verge of vanishing," says report
• Global Heritage Fund has identified 12 sites at risk of irreparable loss
• Well-preserved sites can pay for themselves by attracting tourists, says GHF
• UNESCO warns that badly managed tourism can be just as much of a threat
(CNN) -- Twelve historic sites around the world are "on the verge of vanishing" because of mismanagement and neglect, according to a new report.
The report, by San Francisco-based Global Heritage Fund (GHF), identifies nearly 200 heritage sites in developing nations as being at risk, highlighting 12 as being on the verge of irreparable loss and destruction.
Three sites in the Middle East, Iraq's Nineveh, Palestine's Hisham's Palace, and Turkey's Ani, are among those most in danger.
The ruined city of Ani, on the border of Turkey and Armenia, dates back to the 11th century. Once known as "The City of a Thousand Churches," many of its remaining buildings are now on the brink of collapse.
GHF executive director Jeff Morgan told CNN, "Ani is probably one of the top 10 sites in the world, right up there with Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. It's incredible."
Morgan said Ani has been "caught in a political morass," because of its position on the border of two countries that don't have diplomatic relations.
Nineveh, near Mosul, in northern Iraq, was capital of the Assyrian empire from 705 to 612 B.C.. But Morgan says it is now at risk -- not from the conflict in Iraq, but from lax planning regulations that have led to around 40 percent of the archaeological site being covered by modern development.
Hisham's Palace, in the Palestinian territories, is the remains of a winter palace built by the Islamic Umayyad dynasty. It was destroyed by an earthquake around 747 A.D. and, like Nineveh, is now threatened by urban development.
"There's no expertise there to be able to care of it," said Morgan.
He said that in the Palestinian territories "there are all these ancient sites that are being destroyed because they're building apartment blocks and commercial builds on top of the core archaeological areas and there's no regulations to stop them.
"They feel like, 'We've been doing it for thousands of years, so what the hell?' But the difference is today, those sites can be economic engines for those places."
Morgan argues that restoring these heritage sites will attract tourism that can pay for their ongoing preservation and bring sustainable income to local communities. He said there is huge potential for cultural tourism throughout the region.
"The whole Middle East is a treasure trove," he said.
"Petra [in Jordan] is already huge. There's Palmyra and Aleppo in Syria. Jordan has Jerash, Libya has Sabratha and Iran has huge tourism to all its sites because they're so incredible."
But outstanding heritage sites may not be enough to attract tourists to locations such as Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
As well as security issues, developing nations often lack the necessary infrastructure to encourage tourism.
UNESCO's Art Pederson, an expert in sustainable tourism, told CNN, "We say we're going to use tourism for economic development purposes, but you really need an assessment of the economic geography of the place. Do you have the roads, the transport, the needed infrastructure to make this possible?
"There's a lot of talk about using heritage assets to generate these kinds of benefits but we need to really get serious about doing the legwork to assess whether it's possible or not."
Badly regulated tourism can itself present a threat to historic sites, said Pederson.
Although Morgan said there is a dire shortage of funding and regulation for historical sites in most Middle Eastern countries, he said there are success stories in the region.
Among them, Catalhoyuk, in Turkey, where Morgan said locals had been trained to conserve the site and preserve its murals, and where tourism is well controlled.
"In the Middle East, sites have been looted and pillaged and rebuilt on for thousands of years," he told CNN.
"That's why what's happening now is so critical -- because of scarcity. There are so few intact ruins and historic districts left."
Read the full report here: globalheritagefund.org
We say we're going to use tourism for economic development purposes, but you really need an assessment of the economic geography of the place. UNESCO
GHF's 12 sites 'on the verge of vanishing'
Mahansrhangarh, Bangladesh
Mirador, Guatemala
Palace of Sans Souci, Haiti
Maluti Temples, India
Lamu, Kenya
Famagusta, Cyprus
Taxila, Pakistan
Intramuros and Fort Santiago, The Phillipinnes
Chersonesos, Ukraine
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage
Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites in the Developing World
Introduction
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage explores the challenges facing our most significant and endangered archaeological and heritage sites in the developing world—and what we can do to save them—before they are lost forever.
Our focus on the developing world is driven by the large number of important cultural heritage sites which exist in regions with little capacity to safeguard their existence. In the first decade of the 21st century, we have lost or seriously impaired hundreds of our most precious historic sites—the physical record of our human civilization.
Vanishing surveys over 500 global heritage sites and highlights the accelerating threats facing these cultural treasures. Many have survived thousands of years, only to be lost in this generation—on our watch.
Vanishing was conceived by Global Heritage Fund, an international conservancy that has worked for nearly a decade to protect and preserve the most significant and endangered cultural heritage sites in the developing world.
With the critical review of 24 leading experts working in heritage conservation and international development, this report surveys hundreds of endangered global heritage sites and strives to identify those most in need of immediate intervention, and what the global community can do to save them.
Our primary goals of this report are:
1. to raise critically needed global awareness
2. to identify innovative technologies and solutions
3. to increase funding through private-public partnerships
Vanishing’s findings strongly suggest that the demise of our most significant cultural heritage sites has become a global crisis, on par with environmental destruction.
In this report, GHF considered sites with the highest potential for responsible development critical for the sustained preservation of the site. GHF considers the scientific conservation of a site and its potential for responsible development during our design and planning process resulting in an integrated master plan and strategy that goes well beyond traditional monument based approaches to preservation. This report represents the first attempt to quantify the value of heritage sites as global economic resources to help achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Vanishing focuses on significant global heritage sites that have high potential for future tourism and responsible development, but the report’s findings and recommendations can and should be extended to other realms of heritage preservation. Global heritage sites generate extremely high economic asset values, with some worth billions of dollars a year. These sites can help to greatly diversify local economies beyond tourism and sustenance agriculture reducing dependency and alleviating poverty.
Vanishing begins a global campaign to save the most important and endangered heritage sites in the developing world.
How we as a global community act—or fail to act— in the coming years will determine if we save our global heritage and can realize the untapped economic opportunity these precious sites offer for global development in the world’s lowest-income communities and countries.
Please join us.
Jeff Morgan
Executive Director
Global Heritage Fund
Executive Summary
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage is a critical call to action alerting the international community on the need to focus precious investment on global heritage conservation, a strategy that has proven to be one of the most effective and targeted ways to help alleviate poverty by creating long-term jobs, income, and recurring investment in developing countries.
Vanishing found that of the approximately 500 global heritage sites in 100 of the lowest-income countries of the world—places where the per capita income is less than $3 to $5 a day—over 200 are facing irreversible loss and damage today. The trend of loss is accelerating due to the simultaneous manmade threats of development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict. Fewer than 80 of these sites are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The rest are without international recognition.
The unfavorable imbalance in the UNESCO World Heritage List against the developing world is a key reason for lack of corresponding funding and assistance to enable preservation and protection of sites in these countries. While Italy and Spain have 44 and 41 cultural UNESCO World Heritage designations, respectively, Peru—with 4,000 years of history and hundreds of important cultural sites—has only nine. Guatemala, the cradle of Mayan civilization with the world’s largest pyramids and ancient cities, has just three.
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage brings new urgency and focus to our global heritage in peril.
Vanishing was developed in collaboration with an Editorial Committee comprised of 24 leading experts in heritage conservation and international development from leading universities, preservation groups, international agencies, and the private sector.
A Global Crisis
The 21st century began inauspiciously with the destruction of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas in one afternoon by cannon fire and explosives. Today, our most sacred and ancient sites—Machu Picchu, Angkor, Petra—are being overrun by mass tourism, with millions of people crawling over fragile archaeological ruins. How long can these irreplaceable ancient sites last?
Imagine if the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore —the very symbols of the American nation—were damaged and destroyed through neglect or mismanagement.
Loss and destruction is the status quo for many of the most significant national treasures across the developing world. Hundreds of cultural and archaeological sites face a future of development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict.
While tourism to global heritage sites is exploding, funding for heritage preservation remains anemic.
Major archaeological and heritage sites exist thousands of miles away from our daily concerns. Though we may visit, most of us are unaware of the scale, scope, and pace of damage and loss. Few people realize that they can support critical conservation work at these sites with relatively little money.
Empowering local communities to be the stewards of their global heritage sites is critical. Many global heritage sites are located in natural protected areas and are inhabited by the descendants of those who built them. Local communities will always be the best stewards of their natural and cultural heritage, and the cultural heritage sites provide the economic engine that enables larger-scale nature conservation.
Like endangered species, many archaeological and cultural heritage sites are on the verge of extinction. They are an irreplaceable and finite resource. Without action to protect them now, accelerating economic pressures will end this long history.
Once they are gone—they are gone forever.
Global Heritage in the Peril: Sites on the Verge
Destruction and Loss of Global Heritage in the 21st Century
The most vulnerable global heritage sites are found in countries where there is war and crisis, political instability, or rapid economic transformation. Often losses can go undetected for many years, with sites getting little attention from the local or international community.
Much of this loss can be controlled through better planning, community involvement, and management, but these are often missing in countries where the need is greatest.
In a world that is becoming increasingly homogenized, these treasures are unique and priceless cultural assets, providing a basis for national identity, scientific and historical research, sustainable tourism, and other economic development opportunities for future generations.
A 2007 UNESCO study of over 2,000 World Heritage Site status reports found that nearly one third reported damage that might qualify the site as endangered or threatened. Human action caused the problem in 83 percent of these cases, while only 17 percent involved damage due to natural causes.
As of 2009, 31 World Heritage sites were listed by UNESCO as “in danger.” The fact that even designated UNESCO World Heritage sites are suffering neglect, damage, and loss suggests the large scale of the global crisis.
The 12 Sites on the Verge listed below are a just a few vivid examples of the nearly 200 sites facing irreversible loss and destruction today. All of the Sites on the Verge sites are endangered by multiple simultaneous man-made threats from development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict.
For further information, see Global Heritage in Peril on the right.
State of Global Heritage
Today, simultaneous man-made threats to the world’s cultural heritage far exceed the combined threats of floods, earthquakes, and climate change.
Sites worldwide are being cleared for modern development, while others are suffering from mismanagement and overuse for mass tourism. Over the past decade, cultural sites have been damaged in armed conflict and civil strife, and others, due to lack of prevention funding, have been destroyed by natural disasters. Much of this loss can be controlled through better planning, community involvement, and management, but these are often missing in developing countries where the need is greatest.
For example:
• In India, hundreds of major cultural heritage sites—including monuments, temples, mosques, forts, and historic ruins—remain unprotected while the Archaeological Survey of India, the national government management agency, finds itself overwhelmed by conservation challenges.
• In Iraq, over 1,200 square miles of major ancient Sumerian archaeological sites have been systematically looted since 2003, including the major sites of Larsa and Umma, which originate from the earliest periods of human settlement. Massive looting has not been restricted to conflict zones.
• In Peru, over 2 million people now crowd Machu Picchu every year, up from 300,000 in the year 2000; UNESCO has put the Incan Citadel on a watch list of 10 world sites of “grave concern (and) urgent problems.” Northern Peru appears to be a lunar landscape, with thousands of looter trenches spread across hundreds of miles.
Vanishing identifies five primary man-made threats to global heritage in the developing world:
1. Development Pressures
2. Unsustainable Tourism
3. Insufficient Management
4. Looting
5. War and Conflict
For background on each of these five man-made threats to global heritage, see the report section — The State of Global Heritage.
Value of Global Heritage
A GHF-sponsored analysis of 500 global heritage sites by a team of Stanford University economics graduates estimates that global heritage sites in the developing world are expected to generate over $100 billion a year by 2025, up from $24.6 billion today.
Today, 42 of the 500 global heritage sites surveyed for Vanishing each have revenues of more than $100 million a year.
In many developing countries, domestic and international tourism to global heritage sites—when combined with related crafts and community-based services around those areas—now generate more foreign exchange revenue than any other industry, including mining, logging, and agricultural exports. Heritage assets can be core economic engines—transforming developing economies through sustainable heritage preservation and responsible development.
But due to inaction and lack of resources targeted towards our most endangered sites, we risk losing much of this $100 billion opportunity.
Unlike extraction industries like mining and logging, heritage can be a sustainable resource, generating long-term income and investment far into the future. Few other industries offer our lowest-income countries such an untapped opportunity for global development.
Studies over the last decade have identified the five areas where heritage conservation has the most economic impact:
1. Jobs and household income
2. City center revitalization
3. Heritage tourism property values
4. Small business incubation
5. Multiplier effects in all supply chains
Heritage conservation is particularly good for local job creation and income since labor often makes up 60 to 70 percent of the cost of conservation.
By saving our global heritage sites now, we can bring prosperity and hope to millions of people in the most poverty-stricken regions of the world.
Economic Impact of Global Heritage Sites in Developing and Emerging Countries and Regions
Top 50 Sites Country Domestic
Visitors International
Visitors Total Site
Visitors
(2009 est.) Total
Revenues
(in $1,000s)
The Great Wall China 16,000,000 8,200,000 24,200,000 $2,888,000,000
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor China 10,000,000 8,000,000 18,000,000 $1,920,000,000
Memphis and its Necropolis Egypt 400,000 2,600,000 3,000,000 $936,000,000
Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing
Dynasties China 5,200,000 1,800,000 7,000,000 $904,000,000
Historic Cairo Egypt 1,400,000 2,600,000 4,000,000 $576,000,000
Ephesus Turkey 800,000 2,700,000 3,500,000 $572,000,000
Dahshur Egypt 400,000 2,600,000 3,000,000 $536,000,000
Amritsar India 4,000,000 1,500,000 5,500,000 $460,000,000
Angkor Cambodia 400,000 2,100,000 2,500,000 $436,000,000
Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan Mexico 2,200,000 2,000,000 4,200,000 $432,000,000
Machu Picchu Peru 600,000 1,800,000 2,400,000 $384,000,000
Monte Alban Mexico 1,300,000 1,500,000 2,800,000 $352,000,000
Historic Oaxaca Mexico 1,300,000 1,500,000 2,800,000 $352,000,000
Mitla Mexico 1,300,000 1,500,000 2,800,000 $352,000,000
Abu Simbel Egypt 500,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 $320,000,000
Ancient Thebes Egypt 500,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 $320,000,000
Taj Mahal India 1,200,000 1,200,000 2,400,000 $288,000,000
Petra Jordan 320,000 1,280,000 1,600,000 $268,800,000
Old Havana and its Fortifications Cuba 573,986 1,200,000 1,773,986 $262,959,440
Abu Mena Egypt 300,000 1,200,000 1,500,000 $252,000,000
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza Mexico 1,200,000 1,400,000 2,600,000 $248,000,000
Querétaro Mexico 1,200,000 800,000 2,000,000 $224,000,000
Medina of Fez Morocco 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 $220,000,000
Mount Wutai China 2,800,000 502,000 3,302,000 $212,400,000
Red Fort Complex India 1,200,000 800,000 2,000,000 $208,000,000
Medina of Marrakesh Morocco 200,000 900,000 1,100,000 $188,000,000
City of Cuzco Peru 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Nemrut Dag Turkey 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Ancient City of Damascus Syria 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Pharaonic Temples in Upper Egypt Egypt 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Divri˘gi Turkey 1,500,000 500,000 2,000,000 $160,000,000
Ciudad de Zaruma Ecuador 500,000 700,000 1,200,000 $160,000,000
Old Town of Lijiang China 2,750,000 250,000 3,000,000 $160,000,000
Kasbah of Algiers Algeria 500,000 630,000 1,130,000 $146,000,000
City of Safranbolu Turkey 1,600,000 400,000 2,000,000 $144,000,000
Ban Chiang Thailand 500,000 600,000 1,100,000 $140,000,000
Amber Fort and Town India 500,000 595,000 1,095,000 $139,000,000
Agra Fort India 500,000 590,722 1,090,722 $138,144,400
Hasankeyf Turkey 400,000 600,000 1,000,000 $136,000,000
Antiphellos Turkey 400,000 600,000 1,000,000 $136,000,000
Medina of Tétouan Morocco 400,000 600,000 1,000,000 $136,000,000
Zhouzhuang Ancient Walled City China 1,700,000 300,000 2,000,000 $128,000,000
Dubrovnik Croatia 100,000 620,000 720,000 $128,000,000
My Son Sanctuary Vietnam 166,500 600,000 766,500 $126,660,000
Lahore Fort and Shalamar Gardens Pakistan 1,990,000 210,000 2,200,000 $121,600,000
Borobudur Indonesia 2,468,864 111,136 2,580,000 $120,981,760
Champaner-Pavagadh India 2,000,000 200,000 2,200,000 $120,000,000
Kiev Historic Centre Ukraine 500,000 500,000 1,000,000 $120,000,000
Historic Sukhothai Thailand 500,000 500,000 1,000,000 $120,000,000
Fujian Tulous China 2,000,000 164,200 2,164,200 $112,840,000
Total - Top 50 Global Heritage Sites 77,569,350 68,153,058 142,722,408 $17,477,385,600
Total - Other Global Heritage Sites (approx. 450) 44,670,964 27,612,010 72,403,107 $7,268,988,899
Total - All Global Heritage Sites (approx. 500) 122,240,314 95,765,068 215,125,515 $24,746,374,499
Assumes an average of 1.4 days stay per visitor and spending by domestic visitors of $40 and international visitors of $200. Source: Based on Stanford University Economics Graduate Analysis by Shwetha Shankar et al, 2010. See Value of Global Heritage on the right to view the entire site tourism database (500 global heritage sites) with citations.
Recommendations
Earlier this year, our Editorial Committee of 24 respected professors, scientists, and conservation and development experts from the international community began work on Saving Our Vanishing Heritage.
Starting with a shared understanding of the threats to global heritage sites, the Committee worked to present a strong case for the protection and development potential of these sites, and to form key recommendations as a framework for action.
Six specific recommendations were formulated to increase the viability and potential for the long-term survival of our global heritage sites in developing countries.
1. Multiply International Private-Sector and Government Funding
2. Reinforce Our Global Institutions
3. Increase Global Awareness of the Crisis
4. Promote New Models for Sustainable Preservation and
International Development
5. Advance Innovative Solutions and Technologies
6. Increase Private-Public Partnerships
Investment in the protection and preservation of heritage sites has proven to be one of the most scalable, effective, and targeted means of helping developing nations. Now is the critical time to commit international funds and expertise needed to save our heritage, in the same way that we have committed to combating climate change and the loss of biological diversity as global priorities.
By focusing the dynamic, multi-billion-dollar global industry of heritage tourism and sustainable development on the critical task of preserving the very assets on which they are based, we can help millions rise up out of poverty.
By sharing best practices in site planning and management, historic urban preservation, and integrated community development, we can conserve our most precious global heritage sites and enable major economic growth in new jobs and income for developing countries. A relatively small investment today, combined with global collaboration focused on this crisis, can make all the difference to save this heritage.
The Editorial Committee
Neil Brodie, Ph.D.
Former Director, Cultural Heritage
Resources, Stanford Archaeology
Center, Stanford University
Christina Cameron, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Architecture
Canada Research Chair on Built
Heritage, University of Montreal;
Canada Chairperson, UNESCO’s
World Heritage Committee
Henry Cleere, Ph.D.
Honorary Professor, Institute of
Archaeology, University College
London; (former ICOMOS World
Heritage Coordinator)
Lawrence Coben
Executive Director, Sustainable
Preservation Initiative, Cotsen
Institute of Archaeology, University
of California, Los Angeles
Willem Derde
Ename Center for Public
Archaeology and Heritage
Presentation, Belgium
Randy Durband
Sustainable Tourism Expert;
Senior Partner,
Robin Tauck & Partners
Richard Engelhardt
UNESCO Charge de Mission and
Senior Advisor for Culture
Patty Gerstenblith, J.D., Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
of Law and Director of the Center
for Art, Museum and Cultural
Heritage Law, DePaul University
College of Law; Director, U.S.
Committee of the Blue Shield
Ian Hodder, Ph.D.
Professor, Archaeology and
Anthropology, Stanford University
John Hurd
Director of International
Conservation, Global Heritage
Fund; President of the ICOMOS
Advisory Committee
Gabriela Krist, Ph.D.
Professor and Managing Director,
Institute of Conservation,
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Sirkka Korpela
Adjunct Professor,
Columbia University
Catherine Leonard
Director, International National
Trust Organization, London
Frank Matero
Chair, Graduate Group in Historic
Preservation, Graduate School of
Fine Arts; Director, Architectural
Conservation Laboratory,
University of Pennsylvania
Jeff Morgan
Executive Director,
Global Heritage Fund
Larry Porter
Executive Director,
Sustainable Preservation Initiative,
Archaeologist, University of
Pennsylvania
Brian Rose, Ph.D.
President, Archaeological Institute
of America; James B. Pritchard
Professor of Archaeology,
University of Pennsylvania
Lawrence Rothfield, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department
of English; Department of
Comparative Literature;
Co-founder, Cultural Policy
Center, University of Chicago
Nancy Shao Yong
College of Architecture and Urban
Planning, Tongji University,
National Research Center of
Historic Cities, Shanghai,
P. R. CHINA
Katherine Sierra
Former Vice President for
Sustainable Development,
World Bank; Fellow, Brookings
Institute
Michael Tomlan, Ph.D.
Professor of Historic
Preservation, Cornell University
Ana Vrdoljak, Ph.D.
Professor of Law, Law School,
The University of Western
Australia
James L. Wescoat Jr.
Aga Khan Professor, Aga Khan
Program for Islamic Architecture,
MIT
Tony Wilkinson
Professor, Department of
Archaeology, Durham University
Tim Williams
Senior Lecturer,
Institute of Archaeology,
University College London
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Three historic sites in the Middle East are "on the verge of vanishing," says report
• Global Heritage Fund has identified 12 sites at risk of irreparable loss
• Well-preserved sites can pay for themselves by attracting tourists, says GHF
• UNESCO warns that badly managed tourism can be just as much of a threat
(CNN) -- Twelve historic sites around the world are "on the verge of vanishing" because of mismanagement and neglect, according to a new report.
The report, by San Francisco-based Global Heritage Fund (GHF), identifies nearly 200 heritage sites in developing nations as being at risk, highlighting 12 as being on the verge of irreparable loss and destruction.
Three sites in the Middle East, Iraq's Nineveh, Palestine's Hisham's Palace, and Turkey's Ani, are among those most in danger.
The ruined city of Ani, on the border of Turkey and Armenia, dates back to the 11th century. Once known as "The City of a Thousand Churches," many of its remaining buildings are now on the brink of collapse.
GHF executive director Jeff Morgan told CNN, "Ani is probably one of the top 10 sites in the world, right up there with Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. It's incredible."
Morgan said Ani has been "caught in a political morass," because of its position on the border of two countries that don't have diplomatic relations.
Nineveh, near Mosul, in northern Iraq, was capital of the Assyrian empire from 705 to 612 B.C.. But Morgan says it is now at risk -- not from the conflict in Iraq, but from lax planning regulations that have led to around 40 percent of the archaeological site being covered by modern development.
Hisham's Palace, in the Palestinian territories, is the remains of a winter palace built by the Islamic Umayyad dynasty. It was destroyed by an earthquake around 747 A.D. and, like Nineveh, is now threatened by urban development.
"There's no expertise there to be able to care of it," said Morgan.
He said that in the Palestinian territories "there are all these ancient sites that are being destroyed because they're building apartment blocks and commercial builds on top of the core archaeological areas and there's no regulations to stop them.
"They feel like, 'We've been doing it for thousands of years, so what the hell?' But the difference is today, those sites can be economic engines for those places."
Morgan argues that restoring these heritage sites will attract tourism that can pay for their ongoing preservation and bring sustainable income to local communities. He said there is huge potential for cultural tourism throughout the region.
"The whole Middle East is a treasure trove," he said.
"Petra [in Jordan] is already huge. There's Palmyra and Aleppo in Syria. Jordan has Jerash, Libya has Sabratha and Iran has huge tourism to all its sites because they're so incredible."
But outstanding heritage sites may not be enough to attract tourists to locations such as Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
As well as security issues, developing nations often lack the necessary infrastructure to encourage tourism.
UNESCO's Art Pederson, an expert in sustainable tourism, told CNN, "We say we're going to use tourism for economic development purposes, but you really need an assessment of the economic geography of the place. Do you have the roads, the transport, the needed infrastructure to make this possible?
"There's a lot of talk about using heritage assets to generate these kinds of benefits but we need to really get serious about doing the legwork to assess whether it's possible or not."
Badly regulated tourism can itself present a threat to historic sites, said Pederson.
Although Morgan said there is a dire shortage of funding and regulation for historical sites in most Middle Eastern countries, he said there are success stories in the region.
Among them, Catalhoyuk, in Turkey, where Morgan said locals had been trained to conserve the site and preserve its murals, and where tourism is well controlled.
"In the Middle East, sites have been looted and pillaged and rebuilt on for thousands of years," he told CNN.
"That's why what's happening now is so critical -- because of scarcity. There are so few intact ruins and historic districts left."
Read the full report here: globalheritagefund.org
We say we're going to use tourism for economic development purposes, but you really need an assessment of the economic geography of the place. UNESCO
GHF's 12 sites 'on the verge of vanishing'
Mahansrhangarh, Bangladesh
Mirador, Guatemala
Palace of Sans Souci, Haiti
Maluti Temples, India
Lamu, Kenya
Famagusta, Cyprus
Taxila, Pakistan
Intramuros and Fort Santiago, The Phillipinnes
Chersonesos, Ukraine
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage
Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites in the Developing World
Introduction
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage explores the challenges facing our most significant and endangered archaeological and heritage sites in the developing world—and what we can do to save them—before they are lost forever.
Our focus on the developing world is driven by the large number of important cultural heritage sites which exist in regions with little capacity to safeguard their existence. In the first decade of the 21st century, we have lost or seriously impaired hundreds of our most precious historic sites—the physical record of our human civilization.
Vanishing surveys over 500 global heritage sites and highlights the accelerating threats facing these cultural treasures. Many have survived thousands of years, only to be lost in this generation—on our watch.
Vanishing was conceived by Global Heritage Fund, an international conservancy that has worked for nearly a decade to protect and preserve the most significant and endangered cultural heritage sites in the developing world.
With the critical review of 24 leading experts working in heritage conservation and international development, this report surveys hundreds of endangered global heritage sites and strives to identify those most in need of immediate intervention, and what the global community can do to save them.
Our primary goals of this report are:
1. to raise critically needed global awareness
2. to identify innovative technologies and solutions
3. to increase funding through private-public partnerships
Vanishing’s findings strongly suggest that the demise of our most significant cultural heritage sites has become a global crisis, on par with environmental destruction.
In this report, GHF considered sites with the highest potential for responsible development critical for the sustained preservation of the site. GHF considers the scientific conservation of a site and its potential for responsible development during our design and planning process resulting in an integrated master plan and strategy that goes well beyond traditional monument based approaches to preservation. This report represents the first attempt to quantify the value of heritage sites as global economic resources to help achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Vanishing focuses on significant global heritage sites that have high potential for future tourism and responsible development, but the report’s findings and recommendations can and should be extended to other realms of heritage preservation. Global heritage sites generate extremely high economic asset values, with some worth billions of dollars a year. These sites can help to greatly diversify local economies beyond tourism and sustenance agriculture reducing dependency and alleviating poverty.
Vanishing begins a global campaign to save the most important and endangered heritage sites in the developing world.
How we as a global community act—or fail to act— in the coming years will determine if we save our global heritage and can realize the untapped economic opportunity these precious sites offer for global development in the world’s lowest-income communities and countries.
Please join us.
Jeff Morgan
Executive Director
Global Heritage Fund
Executive Summary
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage is a critical call to action alerting the international community on the need to focus precious investment on global heritage conservation, a strategy that has proven to be one of the most effective and targeted ways to help alleviate poverty by creating long-term jobs, income, and recurring investment in developing countries.
Vanishing found that of the approximately 500 global heritage sites in 100 of the lowest-income countries of the world—places where the per capita income is less than $3 to $5 a day—over 200 are facing irreversible loss and damage today. The trend of loss is accelerating due to the simultaneous manmade threats of development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict. Fewer than 80 of these sites are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The rest are without international recognition.
The unfavorable imbalance in the UNESCO World Heritage List against the developing world is a key reason for lack of corresponding funding and assistance to enable preservation and protection of sites in these countries. While Italy and Spain have 44 and 41 cultural UNESCO World Heritage designations, respectively, Peru—with 4,000 years of history and hundreds of important cultural sites—has only nine. Guatemala, the cradle of Mayan civilization with the world’s largest pyramids and ancient cities, has just three.
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage brings new urgency and focus to our global heritage in peril.
Vanishing was developed in collaboration with an Editorial Committee comprised of 24 leading experts in heritage conservation and international development from leading universities, preservation groups, international agencies, and the private sector.
A Global Crisis
The 21st century began inauspiciously with the destruction of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas in one afternoon by cannon fire and explosives. Today, our most sacred and ancient sites—Machu Picchu, Angkor, Petra—are being overrun by mass tourism, with millions of people crawling over fragile archaeological ruins. How long can these irreplaceable ancient sites last?
Imagine if the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore —the very symbols of the American nation—were damaged and destroyed through neglect or mismanagement.
Loss and destruction is the status quo for many of the most significant national treasures across the developing world. Hundreds of cultural and archaeological sites face a future of development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict.
While tourism to global heritage sites is exploding, funding for heritage preservation remains anemic.
Major archaeological and heritage sites exist thousands of miles away from our daily concerns. Though we may visit, most of us are unaware of the scale, scope, and pace of damage and loss. Few people realize that they can support critical conservation work at these sites with relatively little money.
Empowering local communities to be the stewards of their global heritage sites is critical. Many global heritage sites are located in natural protected areas and are inhabited by the descendants of those who built them. Local communities will always be the best stewards of their natural and cultural heritage, and the cultural heritage sites provide the economic engine that enables larger-scale nature conservation.
Like endangered species, many archaeological and cultural heritage sites are on the verge of extinction. They are an irreplaceable and finite resource. Without action to protect them now, accelerating economic pressures will end this long history.
Once they are gone—they are gone forever.
Global Heritage in the Peril: Sites on the Verge
Destruction and Loss of Global Heritage in the 21st Century
The most vulnerable global heritage sites are found in countries where there is war and crisis, political instability, or rapid economic transformation. Often losses can go undetected for many years, with sites getting little attention from the local or international community.
Much of this loss can be controlled through better planning, community involvement, and management, but these are often missing in countries where the need is greatest.
In a world that is becoming increasingly homogenized, these treasures are unique and priceless cultural assets, providing a basis for national identity, scientific and historical research, sustainable tourism, and other economic development opportunities for future generations.
A 2007 UNESCO study of over 2,000 World Heritage Site status reports found that nearly one third reported damage that might qualify the site as endangered or threatened. Human action caused the problem in 83 percent of these cases, while only 17 percent involved damage due to natural causes.
As of 2009, 31 World Heritage sites were listed by UNESCO as “in danger.” The fact that even designated UNESCO World Heritage sites are suffering neglect, damage, and loss suggests the large scale of the global crisis.
The 12 Sites on the Verge listed below are a just a few vivid examples of the nearly 200 sites facing irreversible loss and destruction today. All of the Sites on the Verge sites are endangered by multiple simultaneous man-made threats from development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict.
For further information, see Global Heritage in Peril on the right.
State of Global Heritage
Today, simultaneous man-made threats to the world’s cultural heritage far exceed the combined threats of floods, earthquakes, and climate change.
Sites worldwide are being cleared for modern development, while others are suffering from mismanagement and overuse for mass tourism. Over the past decade, cultural sites have been damaged in armed conflict and civil strife, and others, due to lack of prevention funding, have been destroyed by natural disasters. Much of this loss can be controlled through better planning, community involvement, and management, but these are often missing in developing countries where the need is greatest.
For example:
• In India, hundreds of major cultural heritage sites—including monuments, temples, mosques, forts, and historic ruins—remain unprotected while the Archaeological Survey of India, the national government management agency, finds itself overwhelmed by conservation challenges.
• In Iraq, over 1,200 square miles of major ancient Sumerian archaeological sites have been systematically looted since 2003, including the major sites of Larsa and Umma, which originate from the earliest periods of human settlement. Massive looting has not been restricted to conflict zones.
• In Peru, over 2 million people now crowd Machu Picchu every year, up from 300,000 in the year 2000; UNESCO has put the Incan Citadel on a watch list of 10 world sites of “grave concern (and) urgent problems.” Northern Peru appears to be a lunar landscape, with thousands of looter trenches spread across hundreds of miles.
Vanishing identifies five primary man-made threats to global heritage in the developing world:
1. Development Pressures
2. Unsustainable Tourism
3. Insufficient Management
4. Looting
5. War and Conflict
For background on each of these five man-made threats to global heritage, see the report section — The State of Global Heritage.
Value of Global Heritage
A GHF-sponsored analysis of 500 global heritage sites by a team of Stanford University economics graduates estimates that global heritage sites in the developing world are expected to generate over $100 billion a year by 2025, up from $24.6 billion today.
Today, 42 of the 500 global heritage sites surveyed for Vanishing each have revenues of more than $100 million a year.
In many developing countries, domestic and international tourism to global heritage sites—when combined with related crafts and community-based services around those areas—now generate more foreign exchange revenue than any other industry, including mining, logging, and agricultural exports. Heritage assets can be core economic engines—transforming developing economies through sustainable heritage preservation and responsible development.
But due to inaction and lack of resources targeted towards our most endangered sites, we risk losing much of this $100 billion opportunity.
Unlike extraction industries like mining and logging, heritage can be a sustainable resource, generating long-term income and investment far into the future. Few other industries offer our lowest-income countries such an untapped opportunity for global development.
Studies over the last decade have identified the five areas where heritage conservation has the most economic impact:
1. Jobs and household income
2. City center revitalization
3. Heritage tourism property values
4. Small business incubation
5. Multiplier effects in all supply chains
Heritage conservation is particularly good for local job creation and income since labor often makes up 60 to 70 percent of the cost of conservation.
By saving our global heritage sites now, we can bring prosperity and hope to millions of people in the most poverty-stricken regions of the world.
Economic Impact of Global Heritage Sites in Developing and Emerging Countries and Regions
Top 50 Sites Country Domestic
Visitors International
Visitors Total Site
Visitors
(2009 est.) Total
Revenues
(in $1,000s)
The Great Wall China 16,000,000 8,200,000 24,200,000 $2,888,000,000
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor China 10,000,000 8,000,000 18,000,000 $1,920,000,000
Memphis and its Necropolis Egypt 400,000 2,600,000 3,000,000 $936,000,000
Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing
Dynasties China 5,200,000 1,800,000 7,000,000 $904,000,000
Historic Cairo Egypt 1,400,000 2,600,000 4,000,000 $576,000,000
Ephesus Turkey 800,000 2,700,000 3,500,000 $572,000,000
Dahshur Egypt 400,000 2,600,000 3,000,000 $536,000,000
Amritsar India 4,000,000 1,500,000 5,500,000 $460,000,000
Angkor Cambodia 400,000 2,100,000 2,500,000 $436,000,000
Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan Mexico 2,200,000 2,000,000 4,200,000 $432,000,000
Machu Picchu Peru 600,000 1,800,000 2,400,000 $384,000,000
Monte Alban Mexico 1,300,000 1,500,000 2,800,000 $352,000,000
Historic Oaxaca Mexico 1,300,000 1,500,000 2,800,000 $352,000,000
Mitla Mexico 1,300,000 1,500,000 2,800,000 $352,000,000
Abu Simbel Egypt 500,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 $320,000,000
Ancient Thebes Egypt 500,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 $320,000,000
Taj Mahal India 1,200,000 1,200,000 2,400,000 $288,000,000
Petra Jordan 320,000 1,280,000 1,600,000 $268,800,000
Old Havana and its Fortifications Cuba 573,986 1,200,000 1,773,986 $262,959,440
Abu Mena Egypt 300,000 1,200,000 1,500,000 $252,000,000
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza Mexico 1,200,000 1,400,000 2,600,000 $248,000,000
Querétaro Mexico 1,200,000 800,000 2,000,000 $224,000,000
Medina of Fez Morocco 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 $220,000,000
Mount Wutai China 2,800,000 502,000 3,302,000 $212,400,000
Red Fort Complex India 1,200,000 800,000 2,000,000 $208,000,000
Medina of Marrakesh Morocco 200,000 900,000 1,100,000 $188,000,000
City of Cuzco Peru 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Nemrut Dag Turkey 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Ancient City of Damascus Syria 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Pharaonic Temples in Upper Egypt Egypt 200,000 800,000 1,000,000 $168,000,000
Divri˘gi Turkey 1,500,000 500,000 2,000,000 $160,000,000
Ciudad de Zaruma Ecuador 500,000 700,000 1,200,000 $160,000,000
Old Town of Lijiang China 2,750,000 250,000 3,000,000 $160,000,000
Kasbah of Algiers Algeria 500,000 630,000 1,130,000 $146,000,000
City of Safranbolu Turkey 1,600,000 400,000 2,000,000 $144,000,000
Ban Chiang Thailand 500,000 600,000 1,100,000 $140,000,000
Amber Fort and Town India 500,000 595,000 1,095,000 $139,000,000
Agra Fort India 500,000 590,722 1,090,722 $138,144,400
Hasankeyf Turkey 400,000 600,000 1,000,000 $136,000,000
Antiphellos Turkey 400,000 600,000 1,000,000 $136,000,000
Medina of Tétouan Morocco 400,000 600,000 1,000,000 $136,000,000
Zhouzhuang Ancient Walled City China 1,700,000 300,000 2,000,000 $128,000,000
Dubrovnik Croatia 100,000 620,000 720,000 $128,000,000
My Son Sanctuary Vietnam 166,500 600,000 766,500 $126,660,000
Lahore Fort and Shalamar Gardens Pakistan 1,990,000 210,000 2,200,000 $121,600,000
Borobudur Indonesia 2,468,864 111,136 2,580,000 $120,981,760
Champaner-Pavagadh India 2,000,000 200,000 2,200,000 $120,000,000
Kiev Historic Centre Ukraine 500,000 500,000 1,000,000 $120,000,000
Historic Sukhothai Thailand 500,000 500,000 1,000,000 $120,000,000
Fujian Tulous China 2,000,000 164,200 2,164,200 $112,840,000
Total - Top 50 Global Heritage Sites 77,569,350 68,153,058 142,722,408 $17,477,385,600
Total - Other Global Heritage Sites (approx. 450) 44,670,964 27,612,010 72,403,107 $7,268,988,899
Total - All Global Heritage Sites (approx. 500) 122,240,314 95,765,068 215,125,515 $24,746,374,499
Assumes an average of 1.4 days stay per visitor and spending by domestic visitors of $40 and international visitors of $200. Source: Based on Stanford University Economics Graduate Analysis by Shwetha Shankar et al, 2010. See Value of Global Heritage on the right to view the entire site tourism database (500 global heritage sites) with citations.
Recommendations
Earlier this year, our Editorial Committee of 24 respected professors, scientists, and conservation and development experts from the international community began work on Saving Our Vanishing Heritage.
Starting with a shared understanding of the threats to global heritage sites, the Committee worked to present a strong case for the protection and development potential of these sites, and to form key recommendations as a framework for action.
Six specific recommendations were formulated to increase the viability and potential for the long-term survival of our global heritage sites in developing countries.
1. Multiply International Private-Sector and Government Funding
2. Reinforce Our Global Institutions
3. Increase Global Awareness of the Crisis
4. Promote New Models for Sustainable Preservation and
International Development
5. Advance Innovative Solutions and Technologies
6. Increase Private-Public Partnerships
Investment in the protection and preservation of heritage sites has proven to be one of the most scalable, effective, and targeted means of helping developing nations. Now is the critical time to commit international funds and expertise needed to save our heritage, in the same way that we have committed to combating climate change and the loss of biological diversity as global priorities.
By focusing the dynamic, multi-billion-dollar global industry of heritage tourism and sustainable development on the critical task of preserving the very assets on which they are based, we can help millions rise up out of poverty.
By sharing best practices in site planning and management, historic urban preservation, and integrated community development, we can conserve our most precious global heritage sites and enable major economic growth in new jobs and income for developing countries. A relatively small investment today, combined with global collaboration focused on this crisis, can make all the difference to save this heritage.
The Editorial Committee
Neil Brodie, Ph.D.
Former Director, Cultural Heritage
Resources, Stanford Archaeology
Center, Stanford University
Christina Cameron, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Architecture
Canada Research Chair on Built
Heritage, University of Montreal;
Canada Chairperson, UNESCO’s
World Heritage Committee
Henry Cleere, Ph.D.
Honorary Professor, Institute of
Archaeology, University College
London; (former ICOMOS World
Heritage Coordinator)
Lawrence Coben
Executive Director, Sustainable
Preservation Initiative, Cotsen
Institute of Archaeology, University
of California, Los Angeles
Willem Derde
Ename Center for Public
Archaeology and Heritage
Presentation, Belgium
Randy Durband
Sustainable Tourism Expert;
Senior Partner,
Robin Tauck & Partners
Richard Engelhardt
UNESCO Charge de Mission and
Senior Advisor for Culture
Patty Gerstenblith, J.D., Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
of Law and Director of the Center
for Art, Museum and Cultural
Heritage Law, DePaul University
College of Law; Director, U.S.
Committee of the Blue Shield
Ian Hodder, Ph.D.
Professor, Archaeology and
Anthropology, Stanford University
John Hurd
Director of International
Conservation, Global Heritage
Fund; President of the ICOMOS
Advisory Committee
Gabriela Krist, Ph.D.
Professor and Managing Director,
Institute of Conservation,
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Sirkka Korpela
Adjunct Professor,
Columbia University
Catherine Leonard
Director, International National
Trust Organization, London
Frank Matero
Chair, Graduate Group in Historic
Preservation, Graduate School of
Fine Arts; Director, Architectural
Conservation Laboratory,
University of Pennsylvania
Jeff Morgan
Executive Director,
Global Heritage Fund
Larry Porter
Executive Director,
Sustainable Preservation Initiative,
Archaeologist, University of
Pennsylvania
Brian Rose, Ph.D.
President, Archaeological Institute
of America; James B. Pritchard
Professor of Archaeology,
University of Pennsylvania
Lawrence Rothfield, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department
of English; Department of
Comparative Literature;
Co-founder, Cultural Policy
Center, University of Chicago
Nancy Shao Yong
College of Architecture and Urban
Planning, Tongji University,
National Research Center of
Historic Cities, Shanghai,
P. R. CHINA
Katherine Sierra
Former Vice President for
Sustainable Development,
World Bank; Fellow, Brookings
Institute
Michael Tomlan, Ph.D.
Professor of Historic
Preservation, Cornell University
Ana Vrdoljak, Ph.D.
Professor of Law, Law School,
The University of Western
Australia
James L. Wescoat Jr.
Aga Khan Professor, Aga Khan
Program for Islamic Architecture,
MIT
Tony Wilkinson
Professor, Department of
Archaeology, Durham University
Tim Williams
Senior Lecturer,
Institute of Archaeology,
University College London
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