Working with World Heritage

There are places in the world that extend beyond borders, religions, nationalities and ethnic divisions. In Denmark, we have three such places – and a great many people are involved on a daily basis with taking care of these places and making them accessible to the visitors. Maybe, at some point in time, there will be more World Heritage sites in Denmark.

by Deputy Director general of the Heritage Agency of Denmark, Anne Mette Rahbæk

Quite likely, most of us Danes have probably visited one or more World Heritage sites while traveling through Denmark or when vacationing abroad. Maybe we have seen television programs about these sites. There are, in fact, 890 of them. They are spread far and wide across the globe and include both the Pyramids of Giza and Jorn Utzon’s Opera House in Sydney.

As far as the sites in Denmark are concerned, we know the Jelling monuments, Roskilde Cathedral, and the Kronborg Castle and then there is also the Ilulissat Ice Fjord in Greenland.

Fewer of us are aware, though, that the designation is based on UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, the charter of which is designed to conserve the world’s outstanding natural and cultural heritage for future generations.

The Convention was adopted in 1972 and is now approaching a sharp corner at a brisk pace. In the course of the nearly 40 years this Convention has been in existence, it has become the single UNESCO Convention with which the greatest number of countries have become affiliated.

Consequently, the World Heritage Convention constitutes one of UNESCO’s most widely known conventions. And at this time, the number of registered sites is approaching the 1,000 mark.

The Danish and Greenlandic World Heritage enterprise
Denmark has, of course, also joined the Convention and has accordingly taken on the obligation to identify sites that fulfill the criteria for World Heritage, to protect its existing sites and to propagate and disseminate the merits that each of the sites represents.

The Danish World Heritage enterprise is anchored in the Heritage Agency of Denmark, which also takes care of maintaining ongoing contact with UNESCO’s World Heritage Center in Paris. The Heritage Agency of Denmark maintains ongoing contact with the Danish World Heritage sites and other interested parties.

Fortunately, there are many “players” in Denmark and Greenland who are busy carrying out the many different tasks that are conjoined with being a World Heritage site: the owners of the sites, namely, the Palaces and Properties Agency, the parochial parish councils at Roskilde Cathedral Parish and Jelling Church and Greenland’s Home Rule, as well as the local politicians and officials in the Elsinore, Roskilde and Vejle municipalities and in the Qaasuitsup Kommunia in Greenland.

Additionally, there are many experts working at universities and museums whom we often call on as we work in cooperation with the Danish branch of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (“ICOMOS” in Danish) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (“IUCN” in Danish).

All these fine cooperative partners’ efforts and commitment to the work surrounding the Danish World Heritage project is of inestimable value. Our sense of gratitude cannot sufficiently be acknowledged.

The World Heritage must be taken care of
Having the status of a World Heritage site actually entails carrying a certain obligation and the requirements imposed on places have increased considerably over the past 5 - 8 years.

For example, it is necessary that we develop management schemes and tourism plans and that we prepare risk-assessments for the sites. Also, we are obligated to keep UNESCO’s World Heritage Center posted on all major changes in the areas. In return, through the channels of this cooperative setup, we enjoy the opportunity to draw on the expertise of internationally renowned specialists whenever we happen to be faced with specific issues like the formation of cracks in the runic stones in Jelling.

When UNESCO assesses that countries are not taking proper care of the world’s shared legacy, the World Heritage committee is empowered to decide to implement special monitoring programs. A World Heritage site can also be stripped of its title should the World Heritage committee deem that those values and merits motivating its inclusion on the list at the time of its enrollment have now become compromised or lost entirely.

Such an event transpired in the summer of 2009 in Dresden, Germany, where, in the opinion of the World Heritage committee, a newly constructed highway bridge crossing the Elbe River Valley’s cultural landscape resulted in the place’s losing a considerable part of its unique value.

Communication concerning the sites
At the Heritage Agency of Denmark, we generally aim our focus at the Danish World Heritage project. Hopefully, perusing the contents of the present website will serve to enhance your knowledge about the Danish World Heritage sites and the many amazing values they represent, for which we all have to shoulder the burden of safeguarding on behalf of “all mankind,” as is so eloquently stated in the charter Convention.

If this website can play a role in stimulating any discussion about the cultural heritage’s and nature’s roles in modern society, we can consider our aim in setting it up to be a success! This applies to the debates surrounding both the interrelationship of preservation, use and change and the relationship between conservation and tourism.

The global strategy
Since 1994, UNESCO has been working to forge a global strategy that is to be based on obtaining a better balance on the World Heritage List.

There has to be a better apportionment between nature sites and cultural sites, a better apportionment among the different continents and a better apportionment between different kinds of places.

Denmark is obligated to examine whether we believe we have places that possess a significance extending beyond ourselves and which we can therefore commit ourselves to preserving and telling others about in the context of an international forum.

New Danish sites
This is precisely what we have been working with in the spring of 2009 and we are consequently making use of this opportunity to present the places in question on this website, along with the four places that are already included on the World Heritage List.

In revising the Danish list of tentative candidates, we have made every effort to ensure that we are considering only the nomination of places that will genuinely add new merits and values to the existing list rather than representing “more of the same.”

There are no guarantees that the newly suggested candidates will be approved for inclusion on the World Heritage list. After all is said and done, it is the World Heritage Committee that must make the decision on the basis of certain rigorous requirements and criteria.

What lies before us and what lies before the places in question is now a comprehensive effort to describe and justify why it is precisely these sites we have chosen as prospective candidates for inclusion on the World Heritage list and also the presentation of a plan for how we intend to protect the sites in question.

A World Heritage site can also be stripped of its title should the World Heritage committee arrive at the opinion that those values motivating its inclusion on the list, at the time of its enrollment, have now become compromised or lost entirely.

Did you know?

Denmark will be a candidate for membership of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee when new members are to be elected in 2011. Denmark wishes to place climate change, cultural diversity and local involvement on the agenda and plans to work for a strengthening of collaboration among the member countries.

Read more in the booklet Denmark in the World Heritage Committee