Natural heritage

The topic of intangible natural heritage is new, recently emerging as an important subject of inquiry. It describes the untouchable elements of the environment that combine to create natural objects, and help define our relationship to them. These elements can be sensory, like auditory landscapes, or processes like natural selection.

Конвенция об охране всемирного культурного и природного наследия, принятая ЮНЕСКО в 1972 г., объединяет страны в их общем стремлении защитить объекты культурного и природного наследия, имеющие выдающееся значение для блага настоящих и будущих поколений.

The International Journal of Heritage Studies ( IJHS ) is the interdisciplinary academic, refereed journal for scholars and practitioners with a common interest in heritage.

In international negotiations, especially on biodiversity, local ecological knowledge has been often limited to issues relating to indigenousness. Based on the concepts of heritage and the terroir, approaches have been developed in France, thus making it possible to better understand, conserve and exploit ecological knowledge and associated biodiversity.

For the first time a comprehensive overview of geo-conservation in Europe has been presented in a book. Geoheritage in Europe and its Conservation includes specific contributions from 37 countries focussing on legislation and geoconservation practices. The only record of the history of our planet lies in the rocks beneath our feet: rocks and the landscape are the memory of the Earth.

Contents: 

Foreword
Irina Bokova (Director-General of UNESCO)

Preface
Jhr. Ir. Diederik Six (president ICOMOS Netherlands) and Drs. Erik Luijendijk (board member ICOMOSNetherlands)

Culture is the fourth pillar of sustainable development
Olivier Blond

Water and Heritage: conventions and connections
Henk P.J. van Schaik, Michael van der Valk and Willem Willems

The 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention unites nations behind a shared commitment to preserve the world’s outstanding cultural and natural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations. This report presents the results of a scientific assessment of globally significant ecosystems in the Arctic Ocean that may be of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) with respect to the natural criteria for World Heritage status.

Culture can be a close ally to gender equality. This report aims to consolidate leading research, statistics and case studies in the field of culture and gender equality, focusing in particular on creativity and heritage, as a contribution to international debates on the post-2015 agenda. It aims to benchmark progress to date and proposes recommendations for governments, decision-makers, the international community and civil society.

Crisis has enveloped the more than 200,000 nationally and regionally protected natural and cultural heritage sites around the world.