Siracusa. The Ortigia island.
Tivoli. Villa Adriana.
Modica. St: Georges Church.
Genova. Via Garibaldi.
No video
Siracusa. The Ortigia island.
Tivoli. Villa Adriana.
Modica. St: Georges Church.
Genova. Via Garibaldi.
An investigation of the problems involved in managing the processes of conservation, recovery and enhancement of urban heritage and landscape heritage is currently at the centre of an interesting Italian study that started in 2002 regarding the World Heritage Sites on Italian soil.
This action has received legislative important recognition in the shape of the approval of Italian Law n° 77/2006 that, among other things, defines and foresees that management plans are to be approved for Italian UNESCO sites [1].
This activity is the result of new requests from the bodies responsible for implementing the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Committee and the World Heritage Centre), who for many years saw the theme of “conservation of cultural heritage” to be a priority, with all the numerous inherent technical and operational implications.
More recently, however, and without neglecting the above problems [2], there has been a shift towards giving equal priority to the theme of site management. Support for this approach has strengthened especially in the light of negative experiences in certain cases around the world, owing to a lack of adequate management systems or their ineffective implementation.
As a direct result of these negative experiences, the demonstration that such management systems are in place has in recent years become an unavoidable requirement in order to obtain inscription of a new site in the World Heritage List.
This need expressed by UNESCO coincides with the determination to pass from merely passive safeguarding to proactive protection that has been seen on various occasions here in Italy: protection that combines the need for conservation of our cultural heritage with the need for transformation due to social and economic dynamicsiii. Development plans (for
These activities involved in the preparation of management plans can be seen in various parallel co-ordinated initiatives [5] now being carried out in an organic manner thanks also to funding under Italian Law n° 77/06.
All Italian UNESCO sites are now in the process of drawing up a management plan, thus starting an unprecedented and highly interesting experiment, particularly so in view of the number and importance of the sites involved [6].
The most interesting result to date from among the most successful cases is that of the co-ordination of the various subjects that, for one reason or another, are responsible for managing the territory, cities and cultural and landscape heritage [7]. Indeed, this aspect formed the basis right from the outset for the Italian approach to the methods to be used to implement such management plans.
In fact, UNESCO has not proposed a particular model. Neither has it provided a definition for a management plan. Each State and local body must, therefore, decide upon the best configuration for the management plan to suit its laws and specific situations [8].
In view of our experience gained in Italy to date, the management plan is a technical project that provides the tool needed to establish and render operational a process of safeguarding and development, shared by several subjects and formalised by means of a programme agreement or other form of planning.
This definition is linked to the needs posed by the cultural, institutional and operative situation in Italy, where it appears most useful to co-ordinate the sector logic of the different competent subjects concerned – public and private – in order to reach the agreed goals and to attain a balanced relationship between conservation and development [9].
In order to put into practice the idea of a “Management Plan”, as mentioned in the above definition, we need to have a clear reporting procedure that is shared and co-ordinated between the various subjects involved.
As a result, it is obvious that the management plan must not be confused with socio-economic development plans or with the tools used for urban development and land development. And definitely not with protection laws.
Nevertheless, all these tools are needed to be able to draw up the management plan: they must first be taken into account and then their reciprocal co-ordination needs to be foreseen.
As a corollary, the management plan is, therefore, a tool that links to the various types of plans and programmes in order to:
The Management Plan is also a “declaration of principles” through which the authorities responsible for managing the sites and the national and local communities to which the sites “belong” promise UNESCO and mankind to guarantee active protection, conservation and enhancement that is compatible with the cultural identities of the local communities.
The plan is thus the document that provides information on the state of the cultural heritage, identifies the problems to be faced in order to ensure its conservation and enhancement and selects the methods to be adopted to introduce a system of concerted action, to draw up a local development policy and systematically assess the results of the same.
As such, the plan can be termed an integrated programme between different objects and subjects, both horizontally (plans and programmes belonging to the same level) and vertically (belonging to a hierarchy). Moreover, the management plan becomes a strategic operational tool because it attempts to identify the goals of short and long term conservation and enhancement on the one hand and the strategies and action needed to achieve this on the other.
This concept of a management plan is thus a method for planning and programming activities and action. It is integrated and repetitive over time and calls for the input at various stages of policy makers, representatives of the social, cultural and economic interests involved, technicians to plan and perform the action and public and private operators.
In other words, it is a cyclical process starting with knowledge (analysis), definition of goals and strategies (planning), performance (action) and auditing (monitoring, which is again a form of analysis) to return again to subsequent re-definition of the goals, etc.
Manuel Roberto Guido
Law n° 77 dated 20 February 2006 Special measures for the protection and exploitation of Italian sites of cultural, landscape and environmental interest inscribed in the "World Heritage List" and placed under “UNESCO” protection.
Art. 3.(Management Plans)
1. Specific management plans are approved to guarantee the conservation of Italian UNESCO sites and to create the conditions necessary for their enhancement.
2. Management plans shall establish priority actions and the method of their implementation, as well as how to obtain the necessary public and private resources supplementing those foreseen by Article 4, in addition to suitable links with normative programmes and tools with complementary goals, such as those disciplining local tourism system and plans for protected areas.
3. Agreements between the competent public institutions for the preparation of the management plans and performance of the corresponding action to adopt the forms and methods foreseen by Legislative Decree n° 42 dated 22 January 2004 bearing the Code for Cultural and Landscape Heritage, hereafter called the «Code».
A fundamental requirement for a site to be added to the World Heritage List is that the site be adequately protected by laws and regulations of that State. Another fundamental requirement is that the site be appropriately conserved, thereby performing all the necessary maintenance and restoration activities.
To this purpose, it is worth remembering the debate held during Italy’s first National Conference for the Landscape held in Rome in October 1999. Cf. National Conference for the Landscape – Acts - Rome, 2000.
“Code for Cultural and Landscape Heritage, in accordance with Article 10 of Law n° 137 dated 6 July 2002” enacted by Legislative Decree n° 41 dated 22 January 2004 and coming into effect on 1 May 2004. Part Two – Cultural heritage, Title II - Exploitation and Enhancement, Item II – Principles for enhancement of cultural heritage.
The drafting of management plans in Italy started at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities with the case of the Val di Noto UNESCO site (2002), followed by those of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy (2003), Val d’Orcia (2004), the Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia (2004), Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica (2005) and Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli (2006).
The “National Advisory Commission for UNESCO site management plans” has been set up at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. This Commission prepared the “Management plan guidelines” presented during the Second National Conference of Italian sites inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, held in Paestum in May 2004. (see: Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. National Commission for UNESCO sites and Local Tourism Systems, The Model for World Heritage site Management Plans. Guidelines in Acts of the 2nd National Conference of Italian UNESCO Sites - Paestum 25-26 May 2004).
Lastly, two studies co-ordinated by the “UNESCO World Heritage Site Office” are worth noting: both have the purpose of testing and investigating the methods identified. The first study is aimed at Establishing a model for the creation of UNESCO site management plans and its application in two different sites. The sites in question here are the “Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula” and “The Sassi and the park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera”. The second study deals with the operational start-up of the “Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto” UNESCO site management plan.
The 41 Italian sites inscribed in the World Heritage List are: Rock Drawings in Valcamonica (1979) - Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with (1980) - Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura (1980, 1990) 14 - Historic Centre of Florence (1982) - Piazza del Duomo, Pisa (1987, 2007) - Venice and its Lagoon (1987) - Historic Centre of San Gimignano (1990) - The Sassi and the park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera (1993) - City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto (1994, 1996) - Crespi d'Adda (1995) - Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta (1995, 1999) 15 - Historic Centre of Naples (1995) - Historic Centre of Siena (1995) - Castel del Monte (1996) - Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna (1996) - Historic Centre of the City of Pienza (1996) - The Trulli of Alberobello (1996) - 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex (1997) - Archaeological Area of Agrigento (1997) - Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata (1997) - Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua (1997) - Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena (1997) - Costiera Amalfitana (1997) - Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto) (1997) - Residences of the Royal House of Savoy (1997) - Su Nuraxi di Barumini (1997) - Villa Romana del Casale (1997) - Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia (1998) - Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula (1998) - Historic Centre of Urbino (1998) - Villa Adriana (Tivoli) (1999) - Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and Other Franciscan Sites (2000) - City of Verona (2000) - Isole Eolie (Aeolian Islands) (2000) - Villa d'Este, Tivoli (2001) - Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto (South-Eastern Sicily) (2002) - Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy (2003) - Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia (2004) - Val d'Orcia (2004) - Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica (2005) - Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli (2006).
The Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Regions, Provinces, Municipalities, Mountain Communities, Parks and other competent local public bodies, plus the Vatican.
A useful reference for this subject is provided in the book published by ICCROM: Bernard M. Feilden and Jukka Jokilehto, Management Guidelines for World Cultural Heritage Sites, Rome, 1998. This provides particularly useful indications that act as an introduction to the subject. Even though these are addressed to subjects responsible for heritage on a global scale, yet they are presented in such a generic manner that they can be used for widely differing normative and socio-economic purposes.
It is worth remembering that Italian laws do not foresee the adoption of management plans for territories, town centres and monument complexes. Management tools were foreseen only for parks, corresponding – at least in part – to the co-ordinated management systems aimed at protection and enhancement requested by UNESCO. Thanks to the new law (2006), a new approach is now possible, even if simply limited to UNESCO sites. Any experience gained in this sector will, of course, be extended to other situations.
1800 - 2000 - - rev. 0.1.9