Cultural self-awareness
The World Heritage review process is quite strict. Even before nomination, individual countries must undertake a long period of preparatory work. After this work is submitted to the UN, the World Heritage Center first determines whether or not the data provided is complete. Then there is an onsite evaluation by one of two nongovernmental organizations: ICOMOS for cultural sites and the IUCN for natural sites. Then a special seven-member committee reviews the reports and evaluations of the experts, before finally turning the proposal over to the 21 representative countries on the World Heritage Committee for a final decision.
Council of Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou, who has been strongly promoting the World Heritage project in Taiwan, states: "The prerequisite to inclusion on the list is self-affirmation and conservation. Therefore, we still have a lot of things to take care of." First it is necessary to undertake detailed field surveys and historical research in order to complete the comprehensive reports which will be sent in for review.
For example, for the Alishan Mountain Railway, considered one of the three most important mountain railways in the world, it is not enough to explain the chronological and technical processes of its construction. You must also explain its relationship to the entire history of lumbering and its effect on the forest, and conduct surveys of all the stations along the line. And your report has to exhaustively discuss the development of settlements along the way, the current operational status, problems and shortcomings, and the views of local residents.
The hidden agenda behind the report system is to determine whether or not the local government is doing a sound job in preparation for making the site a protected asset on the national level, and whether or not local people are actively cooperating in the preservation effort. For example, Orchid Island, home to the Tao people, is not even a national park, there are stockpiles of nuclear waste there, and local residents and the government have an antagonistic relationship.
As Monica Kuo says: "The ultimate spirit of the World Heritage idea is in fact a movement of self-awareness." And Lin Hui-cheng, a dean and professor in the graduate institute of architecture at Taipei National University of the Arts, avers: "Even if everybody loves you, if you don't treasure what you have yourself, then you will never make it onto the World Heritage List."
Another case in point is the Shenghsing train station on the old Mountain Line. Since it became a popular tourist destination, 16 restaurants have popped up around it. Yukio Nishimura, a World Heritage evaluator from the UN who was invited to visit this location, was astonished to see the venerable old train station virtually obscured behind a crowd of holiday vendors on the street. "Tourism development based on the cultural and historical environment is a form of dialogue between the locality and the world. The value and future prospects of the cultural and historical sites on the Mountain Line urgently require further understanding and consensus," says Chen Yuh-jean, executive director of the NTU Building and Planning Research Foundation, who has been researching and surveying the Mountain Line for over a year now.
Similar problems have plagued many World Heritage sites around the world. Many countries treat the cultural assets left to them by their ancestors as money trees to attract tourists. One example is the old town of Lijiang in Yunnan Province in mainland China. The streets of the old settlement are now lined with restaurants and shops, and at night the place is as bright and noisy as it is during the middle of the day.
Importantly, inclusion on the World Heritage list is not necessarily permanent. If the designated location is put at serious risk or is seriously damaged, the crown will be removed from its head. By the end of 2001, 31 locations had been placed on a "List of World Heritage Sites in Danger" as a result of a change in their legal status, lack of maintenance, geological or climate change, or threats brought about by regional planning or war. These sites, which are under observation and may lose their World Heritage Site status, include Lijiang in China, Yellowstone in the US, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
(photo at right by Chen Yueh-kuei)