Notes on how to use tool 1 heritage/conservation values and attributes

The purpose of this tool is to present a step-by-step approach to using the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value as a basis for the World Heritage component within a broader Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), or as a stand-alone Heritage Impact Assessment A Heritage Impact Assessment is an activity-specific or project-level assessment that is focused on identifying and assessing the potential effect of a proposed activity or project on the heritage/conservation values of a natural and/or cultural heritage place. In the context of World Heritage properties, a Heritage Impact Assessment should be particularly focused on identifying and assessing negative and positive impacts on the attributes which convey the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List.   . The Statement of Outstanding Universal Value is a short narrative text that describes why a World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. was considered so exceptional that it was inscribed on the World Heritage List. However, in order to be able to use the Statement, it is useful to analyse the content and break it down into values and attributes. The following pages illustrate how this might be done. The tool is provided as a general template to suggest one of many possible approaches, and it may be further adapted and improved as appropriate.

The website of the World Heritage Centre The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is a technical administrative body within UNESCO, established in 1992 and appointed by the Director-General of UNESCO. It acts as the Secretariat of the World Heritage Convention The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage is an international treaty adopted by the UN in 1972 that defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List for their Outstanding Universal Value for all humankind. Commonly known as the World Heritage Convention, it establishes how the international community as a whole is responsible for
the protection of such heritage and sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites that may be eligible for inscription onto the World Heritage List and their role in protecting and preserving them. By signing the Convention, each country pledges to conserve not only the sites situated on its territory that have been recognized as being of Outstanding Universal Value, but also to protect its national heritage and to be involved in international efforts to protect, conserve and promote the heritage of humankind. , is the focal point and coordinator within UNESCO for all matters related to World Heritage, and ensures the day-to-day management of the Convention. (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/) has a dedicated section for each World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. , including its Statement of Outstanding Universal Value. Properties are listed by country, or a search can be performed to find the specific property by name. The Statement of Outstanding Universal Value can be found on the first page of the property’s listing.

As a first approach to this text, it is useful to highlight different parts of the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value that describe values and attributes.

Heritage/conservation values
Some phrases in a Statement describe why a World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. is considered to be exceptional, interesting, different or special – its values. The example in Box A1.1 explains how the Blue Sea Marine Park and the Old Town of Heritopolis is considered to be exceptional because its ‘marine systems have developed unique and different ecosystems and species’ (values in red, italic).

Attributes Attributes are the elements of a heritage place which convey its heritage/conservation values and enable an understanding of those values. They can be physical qualities, material fabric and other tangible features, but can also be intangible aspects such as processes, social arrangements or cultural practices, as well as associations and relationships which are reflected in physical elements of the property.
For cultural heritage places, they can be buildings or other built structures and their forms, materials, design, uses and functions but also urban layouts, agricultural processes, religious ceremonies, building techniques, visual relationships and spiritual connections.
For natural properties, they can be specific landscape features, areas of habitat, flagship species, aspects relating to environmental quality (such as intactness, high/pristine environmental quality), scale and naturalness of habitats, and size and viability of wildlife populations.
Attributes, and the interactions between them, should be the focus of protection, conservation and management actions.

The term ‘attributes’ is particularly used for World Heritage properties and a clear understanding of the attributes that convey their Outstanding Universal value is critical for their long-term protection. The spatial distribution of those attributes and respective protection requirements should inform the boundary of the property and other management responses.
Some words in the Statement will describe the attributes that convey the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). It is often helpful to think of attributes as those elements of a World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. that are the focus of management and conservation activities at the property; the elements that we want to protect and pass on to future generations. They can be physical qualities, relate to material fabric and other tangible features, but can also be intangible aspects such as processes, social arrangements or cultural practices, as well as associations and relationships which are reflected in physical elements of the property. Examples of attributes (underlined) in Box A1.1 include ‘seagrass beds’, ‘orange dugong’ and ‘reef zones’.

The next step is to list the values that have been identified from the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value. It is not possible to rewrite the Statement; however, when the values are extracted, the format sometimes needs adjusting, e.g. forming a complete sentence or merging two similar values into a single sentence (Box A1.2)

In addition to the Outstanding Universal Value, it will also be necessary to identify other heritage/ conservation values. These may be values recognized through other international, national and local designations, i.e. other reasons why the heritage property is considered to be important and of interest.
There is no hierarchy of values – indeed, Outstanding Universal Value is usually interdependent with other values. In particular, values related to intangible heritage should not be forgotten.

For example, Heritopolis is considered of national importance because the community’s relationship to their natural environment is reflected in their art and architecture of their religious places and celebrated in many traditional festivities.

Once the values have been identified, they can then be inserted in the first column of a values and attributes table (Table A1.1). All the values that have been extracted from the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value can be inserted in the ‘OUV’ for level of recognition; other heritage/conservation values can be inserted in national or local values.

NB: in order for a value to be recognized as being of Outstanding Universal Value, it must have first been recognized as important at local and national levels. For this reason, it is not necessary to repeat the same value at every level of recognition.

Once the values have been inserted into the table, it is now time to return to the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value, analysed in Step 2, to extract the attributes. Remembering that attributes convey the heritage values, they can be inserted in the third column of the table, next to each value they support (Table A.1.2).

Attributes Attributes are the elements of a heritage place which convey its heritage/conservation values and enable an understanding of those values. They can be physical qualities, material fabric and other tangible features, but can also be intangible aspects such as processes, social arrangements or cultural practices, as well as associations and relationships which are reflected in physical elements of the property.
For cultural heritage places, they can be buildings or other built structures and their forms, materials, design, uses and functions but also urban layouts, agricultural processes, religious ceremonies, building techniques, visual relationships and spiritual connections.
For natural properties, they can be specific landscape features, areas of habitat, flagship species, aspects relating to environmental quality (such as intactness, high/pristine environmental quality), scale and naturalness of habitats, and size and viability of wildlife populations.
Attributes, and the interactions between them, should be the focus of protection, conservation and management actions.

The term ‘attributes’ is particularly used for World Heritage All inherited assets which people value for reasons beyond mere utility. Heritage is a broad concept and includes shared legacies from the natural environment, the creations of humans and the creations and interactions between humans and nature. It encompasses built, terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, landscapes and seascapes, biodiversity, geodiversity, collections, cultural practices, knowledge, living experiences, etc.   properties and a clear understanding of the attributes that convey their Outstanding Universal value is critical for their long-term protection. The spatial distribution of those attributes and respective protection requirements should inform the boundary of the property and other management responses. might need to be refined and some research may be necessary in order to do so. This is because:

• Some Statements of Outstanding Universal Value do not specifically mention all the attributes that convey the heritage values. These will need to be added.
• Some attributes which are mentioned in the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value are very general and need to be more specific. In the Heritopolis example, ‘species’ and ‘monuments’ may need to be reviewed and explained in more detail. In addition, ‘ecosystems’ may be considered holistically, but more details may be needed during the impact assessment process.
• The features that convey other heritage/conservation values will also need to be listed.

The final column of the table can then be completed with references to sources of information that are available on the attributes (Table A1.3). These sources can range from knowledge held by people, bibliographic references, datasets, photographs, GIS, archival material or any other relevant material. Listing these can help guide research in the next steps of the impact assessment or highlight where new data needs to be gathered.

Some information about the World Heritage property A cultural, natural or mixed heritage place inscribed on the World Heritage List and therefore considered to be of OUV for humanity. The responsibility for nominating a property to the World Heritage List falls upon the State(s) Party(ies) where it is located. The World Heritage Committee decides whether a property should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, taking into account the technical recommendations of the Advisory Bodies following rigorous evaluation processes.
When used as a general term, World Heritage refers to all the natural, cultural and mixed properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. may be highly sensitive and will need to be managed carefully to maintain confidentiality. This is particularly the case for sacred secret knowledge of Indigenous peoples. However, this can be noted in the table if appropriate.