Abstract
The World Heritage Convention has taken a step forward by adopting a “Policy for the integration of a sustainable development perspective into the processes of the World Heritage Convention” in 2015, almost parallel to the adoption of the Sustainable Developments Goals (SGD) by the UN. A multilevel analysis shows the alignment of the World Heritage policy with the SDGs. It explores the direct and indirect linkages of the SDGs to the Convention, its guidelines and policies and reveals that the direct linkages are concentrated only on a part of the SDGs and subsequent targets. This analysis examines the relevance of (Natural) World Heritage for achieving the 17 SDGs and the associated 169 targets and presents selected case studies. The study demonstrates that the World Heritage Convention with its universal scope offers opportunities to contribute to the SDG implementation on all levels but also reveals that successful implementation will need considerable action on international, national and subnational level.
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Notes
- 1.
These are World Heritage Convention (WHC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands, Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITGRFA) and Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
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Engels, B. (2017). Natural World Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals. In: Albert, MT., Bandarin, F., Pereira Roders, A. (eds) Going Beyond. Heritage Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57165-2_4
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