It is high time when we start thinking about sustainable development with the help of these heritage sites in our mind. Heritage was long absent from the limelight of sustainable development debate despite its crucial significance to societies and the prominent acknowledgment of its high potential to contribute to economic, social, and environmental goals.
Indeed, the protection of essential heritage properties is cherished by people worldwide, such as significant landmarks and natural sceneries monuments – can be considered a significant contribution to human evolution. It is hard to imagine our countries, cities, and surrounding without the familiar remnants of our past.
But in addition to its significant value for present and future generations, World Heritage – and heritage in general – can also make a major instrumental contribution to sustainable development across its various aspects.
Through different goods and services and as a heap of knowledge, a well-maintained World Heritage property may contribute directly to eradicating poverty and inequalities by providing equal basic opportunities, such as shelter, security, health, access to clean air, and food, water, and other primary resources.
Saving natural resources, including leading sites containing some of the most valuable terrestrial and marine biodiversity combinations, is a fundamental help to environmental sustainability. Most of these sites, have developed over time through mutual adaptation between humans and the environment, and hence demonstrate how, rather than existing in separate and parallel worlds, biological and cultural diversities communicate with and affect one another in complex ways in a sort of co-evolutionary process
World Heritage is also essential to people’s spiritual well-being for its powerful symbolic and aesthetic paradigm. The acknowledgment and preservation of the diversity of the natural and cultural heritage, fair access to it, and the equal sharing of the benefits coming from its use enhance the feeling of place and belongingness, mutual respect for others and a sense of purpose and liability to maintain a balance, which contributes to the social harmony of a community as well as to individual and collective freedom of choice and action.
A well-maintained heritage is also very significant in addressing risks related to natural and unnatural disasters. Experience has shown that dwindling natural resources, neglected rural areas, urban sprawl, and poorly engineered new constructions increase the risk of disaster, especially in developing countries. On the other hand, a well-conserved natural and historic environment, based on traditional knowledge and skills, considerably reduces underlying disaster risk factors, strengthens the resilience of communities, and saves lives.
So, we must aim for sustainable development with the conservation heritage sites.
