Managing Heritage Properties: Challenges and Opportunities

 Twenty individuals are required to attend the international course Managing World Heritage: People Nature Culture (PNC22), which will be held in the Republic of Korea from August 1st to the 12th, 2022. This foundational course serves as the flagship offering of the World Heritage Leadership program. Its participants include heritage practitioners, site coordinators, members of management teams and institutions, and individuals engaged in the conservation of World Heritage properties and other significant heritage sites worldwide.

PNC22 advocates for a heritage management approach known as the "heritage place approach," which centers on the comprehension of methods to preserve and augment the manifold heritage values inherent in heritage sites within their broader socio-environmental and economic frameworks. This includes implementing approaches that are place-based and people-centered when collaborating with diverse communities. It unites individuals engaged in every aspect of heritage management so that they may exchange insights and knowledge, thereby promoting the field's professional development.

The course equips attendees with the understanding, abilities, and consciousness necessary to manage cultural landmarks, such as World Heritage sites. Additionally, it fosters enduring networks that facilitate continuous peer learning and bolster capacity development within the heritage industry.

Furthermore, the World Heritage Leadership programme ensures that all capacity building initiatives it coordinates serve to strengthen the integration of people-centered approaches and nature-culture connections into all World Heritage processes. Consequently, this strengthens the capacity of World Heritage to serve as a catalyst for enhancing broader institutional and legal structures, thereby yielding favorable outcomes for the field of heritage as a whole.

Whomay apply?

This course focuses specifically on:

Individuals engaged in a broader sense of World Heritage conservation and management, including practitioners stationed at particular cultural and/or natural cultural and historical sites. For instance, individuals engaged in heritage-related endeavors at the regional or national scale, policymakers and other institutional representatives, charitable organizations, local associations, community groups, researchers, and so forth.

The fundamental idea of the training

By demonstrating how proficient administration can endow heritage sites with a multifaceted and enduringly advantageous function in society, they will serve as a reflection of the diverse array of individuals who maintain, utilize, and appreciate them. A variety of stakeholders, including heritage practitioners, policy makers affiliated with institutions, and representatives from communities and networks, participate in the governance, preservation, and utilization of a heritage site. Therefore, collaborating with each of these groups may be crucial in order to obtain the advantages for both society and the heritage itself. Every relevant actor must possess an understanding of the values that various individuals ascribe to a historical site. They can then work together to develop suitable strategies and techniques for the comprehensive protection of these varied values.

This course challenges the artificial dichotomy between cultural and natural heritage conservation by emphasizing their interdependence and interrelatedness in order to advance quality management at World Heritage sites and other cultural and natural heritage locations. In many cultural heritage sites, engaging the public remains a formidable obstacle, and fusing nature and culture may present practical challenges in the form of distinct legal and institutional protection systems. Although there is no universally applicable formula for addressing these challenges, numerous instances of potential strategies exist for investigation, comprehension, and as a source of inspiration for regional adaptations.

In light of evolving circumstances and realities, this course offers a comprehensive outline of the fundamental components that comprise a heritage management system. By understanding how the system functions, it is possible to evaluate its operation and performance, including how existing resources can be better utilized, while exploring new ways of doing things. Key resources and instruments for enhancing the management, planning, and decision-making processes at World Heritage properties and sites will be presented to the attendees.

There exists a multitude of frameworks, tools, and methodologies that can be utilized to assist institutions, decision-makers, and heritage practitioners in enhancing the administration of historic sites through the facilitation of more informed and effective planning and decision-making. Nevertheless, this course places specific emphasis on the educational materials generated via the World Heritage Leadership initiative. These materials consist of the Guidance and Toolkit on Conducting Impact Assessment in a World Heritage Context, the Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit 2.0, and the latest editions of the World Heritage Management Manual. Furthermore, the course will incorporate strategies and approaches applied by participants at their respective World Heritage properties and sites of significance, thereby promoting peer-to-peer learning and the exchange of knowledge and facilitating a more comprehensive comprehension of heritage management on a global scale.

Costs and obligations

No registration fee is required to enroll in this course. Participants shall be liable for their own round-trip airfare and visa expenses while in the Republic of Korea. The coordinating bodies will furnish lodging, meals, and transportation throughout Korea.

It is highly recommended that candidates pursue financial assistance from governmental organizations, employers, and funding agencies. Kindly notify ICCROM of any secured or submitted funding applications. Travel expenses may be covered by a restricted number of scholarships in cases where financial need has been established. Nevertheless, their realization is contingent upon the availability of external funding during the course.

Venue and programme

The course will take place in the Republic of Korea from 1–12 August 2022 (venues to be announced shortly) and will be in English.

Participants will have the opportunity to examine the management and maintenance of World Heritage properties in the Republic of Korea, as well as exchange information with local counterparts regarding the opportunities and challenges of managing World Heritage properties and heritage sites in the twenty-first century.

The course will be organized in accordance with the subsequent overarching themes:

Heritage-site methodologies

The broader context, boundaries, and buffer zones of historic sites

Rights-based and human rights-centered approaches to heritage management

Aspects influencing world heritage sites and assessments of their effects on World Heritage Management systems

Management planning and implementation

Assessing the efficacy of management

Repercussions of heritage management and conservation

Methods of application

The procedure for applying is as follows:

English-only completion of the online application form

Please provide your professional curriculum vitae (in English, no more than two pages) along with a personal photograph.

Include your institution's official endorsement in the upload.

(File types accepted include pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, png, tif, and tiff; maximum file size is 5 MB).

Should you face any challenges while attempting to submit your application through the ICCROM website, kindly contact us via email at pnc22@iccrom.org.

Concerning World Heritage Administration

The World Heritage Leadership program is administered in partnership with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS by IUCN and ICCROM. The initiative is financially supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, in addition to contributions from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), and other collaborative partners. It is a capacity-building initiative that aims to strengthen the connection between culture, environment, and people in the management of cultural heritage sites and to ensure that heritage plays a more dynamic role in broader sustainable development.

The Cultural Heritage Administration of the Republic of Korea, in conjunction with the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, provides funding for the PNC22 course.