World Heritage Difficult to Maintain When Politics Involved

Interview with UNESCO World Heritage Centre Director Francesco Bandarin

Civil war, looting, climate change, development and urbanization as well as poor maintenance and negligence due to poverty… These are some of the detractors that ㅗhave threaten efforts to preserve historical relics around the world. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has placed 34 world heritage properties on its list of world heritage in danger this year, up from 31 a year ago.

"Preserving and restoring world heritage properties requires a lot of investment from a long-term perspective," said Francesco Bandarin, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. This interview with the director took place at the 34th session of the world heritage committee held in Brasilia, Brazil in August, 2010. Following is a Q&A.

Q UNESCO has been trying to preserve world heritage properties, but many sites are still under danger. UNESCO's wok to prevent deterioration looks somewhat helpless at times.

A If you ask me if the World Heritage Centre can save the world, the answer is 'no'. It's too much to expect grand results in a short time. But we are persuading and urging the international community and nations to preserve their historical relics. The system we have continues to be strong and effective.

Q Is there any particular threat to the preservation of world heritage sites that has been on the rise recently?

A Pressure for urbanization and development has been increasing all over the world. Because the economy is growing in many regions and related activities are increasing, the side effects of development are also becoming more serious. In the case of climate change, resolving this won't be easy. We have to try to lessen the effects of climate change based on research about how it affects world heritage sites.

Q What is the focus of the World Heritage Centre?

A We should strengthen intervention mechanisms (to resolve problems) and to monitor the conditions of world heritage sites. This will require a lot of investments and expenditures. We aren't perfect. But our influence has grown compared with 20 years ago. That's one reason almost 1,000 people have come to this year's meeting.

Q Political factors have been involved in protecting world heritage sites. What is the Centre's opinion of this?

A In most cases, this is a matter of sovereignty. The conflict between Serbia and Kosovo regarding the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear and Israel and Palestine are all such cases. It's an area of dispute especially controversial this year. The World Heritage Centre has a strong opinion that it doesn't get involved with sovereignty issues.

But sovereignty is like a monster that intervenes anywhere and problems arising from this matter can be unreasonable. Thailand and Cambodia are fighting over a piece of land that's tinier than a small apartment. It's a global drama resulting from misunderstanding, wrong information and bad maintenance. Preservation concerns vanish when politicians get involved. Frankly, we sometimes are helpless regarding this matter. All we can do is trying to ease tension and collision.

Q UNESCO has more than 900 world heritage sites on its list. Is there an "inflation" of world heritage properties?

A How many are there in Korea? (I said the number is 10.) Do you think that's enough? (I said no.) See. That's the answer. Some have been raising concerns about discrepancies as there are many world heritage sites in Europe, much more than those in Africa or Latin America. I don't see any problems with having more world heritage properties.

Lee Jeong Eun, Staff Writer