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.

To read more, download the full Report on the right.

State of Global Heritage

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