Title
Chapter Title: Sustainable development at natural World Heritage sites in Africa
Book Title: World Heritage for sustainable development in Africa.
Author(s)
Kümpel, Noëlle F.; Hatchwell, Matthew; Clausen, Alison; Some, Laurent; Gibbons, Owen; Field, Anthony
Published
2018
Abstract
The adoption of the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climatein 2015 demonstrates that governments around theworld are increasingly recognizing that sustainabledevelopment and the very health of the planet isunderpinned by interlinked and interdependentsocial, economic and environmental factors.Governments also recognize the value of ourshared heritage, with the World HeritageConvention being one of the most widely adoptedconventions, ratified by 191 countries in the UNsystem. It is the only Convention that explicitlylinks nature and culture, a link that is also made inthe SDGs under target 11.4 to ‘Strengthen effortsto protect and safeguard the world’s cultural andnatural heritage’, as well as under targets 15.1 ‘By2020, ensure the conservation, restoration andsustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwaterecosystems and their services, in particularforests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in linewith obligations under international agreements’and 15.9 ‘By 2020, integrate ecosystem andbiodiversity values into national and local planning,development processes, poverty reductionstrategies and accounts’. The contribution ofWorld Heritage to sustainable development, andthe linkages between cultural and natural diversityand conservation, is detailed further in UNESCO’slandmark Policy Document for the Integrationof a Sustainable Development Perspective intothe Processes of the World Heritage Convention(UNESCO, 2015).
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PUB23362