KUCHING: World Heritage Day is observed on April 18 every year to promote awareness about cultural heritage and diversity around the world.
Set with a different theme annually, UNESCO has encouraged partners world-wide to hold various activities to commemorate the celebrated day.
This year, it has announced the international day for monuments and sites under the theme ‘Heritage and Climate’.
Academics from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Dr Nicholas Gani and Dr Adibah Yusuf feel only through education can people be aware of the importance of conserving heritage sites.
Nicholas from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities has been actively involved in archaeological research for more than a decade.
Having participated in several important archaeological excavations, he said heritage accounts for both the tangible and intangible things inherited from the past.
These heritages are important today for the shaping of our identity, sense of self and belonging.
“They could also be things that are of high significance to the social well-being of people. Heritage can be either natural or cultural.
“In Sarawak, an example of a natural heritage is Mulu National Park, while an example of a cultural heritage is the various colonial period buildings in Kuching like the Old Court House or the old Sarawak Museum, which are of historical significance to the city and state,” he said.
Nicholas who is an expert in Material Culture (Archaeology and History) said heritage is essentially a social construction in that people as a social group or as a society are the ones who can define what is important to them as a valued heritage.
“Heritage objects can also receive official recognition or gazettement as heritage. This is often done through institutions and heritage authorities like the Sarawak Museum Department in Sarawak, or the National Heritage Department in Malaysia, usually in order to ensure protection and preservation of the heritage.
“Because of their importance, heritage is also something that we usually want to preserve for the present and future generations,” said Nicholas.
Meanwhile, Adibah, also from the same faculty, who is an expert in Malay Culture and Social Culture defines heritage as valued objects and qualities such as historic buildings and cultural traditions that have been passed down from previous generations.
“It can be defined by its structure which requires preservation because of its historical, architectural, cultural, aesthetic or ecological value.
“While culture refers to the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society, heritage on the other hands refers to the aspects of culture which are inherited to the present and which will be preserved for the future,” she said.
According to Adibah, a world heritage site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO.
World heritage sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance in 194 countries at present.
How does climate affect heritage sites?
Nicholas believes that climate in general can affect heritage sites, especially in terms of their preservation.
The tropical climate in Malaysia is not the best for the preservation of organic materials, thus wooden buildings or structures would deteriorate or decay quicker.
“Heritage sites can also be affected by climate change. One of the effects of climate change is the rise in sea levels.
“This would definitely impact the preservation of heritage sites that are located in coastal areas. Global warming has also had an impact on heritage sites, in particular natural ones.
“Global warming and the warming seas have resulted in coral bleaching that has badly affected the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” he added.
On the other hand, Adibah said armed conflict and war as wel as earthquakes and other natural disasters such as pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanisation as well as unchecked tourism development has posed major problems to world heritage sites.
“The assets or the physical body of the heritage are the main concern that have been affected by climate changes.
“Climatic changes may aggravate the physical, chemical, and biological
mechanisms causing degradation by affecting the structure and/or composition of the affected materials.
“The expected rates of decay have also contributed to the appearance of decay phenomena,” she said.
She also said that climate change is a huge contributor to lost economic opportunities in the cultural and creative industries and cultural tourism.
It disrupts the lives of communities across the globe, dramatically limiting their ability to access and benefit from their own culture
What can be done to diminish such effects on heritage sites?
As the saying goes, ‘prevention is better than cure’. Nicholas said the people should think about reducing human impacts on the environment, particularly those that contribute to the acceleration of global warming and climate change.
Everyone, including governments, policy makers, scientists and researchers, as well as local communities, need to play their part to address the problem, he said.
“It would be hard to prevent our heritage from being impacted by climate change, unless we first of all deal with the issue of climate change itself.
“However, over the years there have been various ways used to preserve heritage. Old buildings, for example can be restored or conserved.
“In Sarawak this can be seen in the case of the Old Court House in Kuching, and the various forts like Fort Margherita in Kuching, Fort Alice in Sri Aman, as well as Fort Emma in Kanowit.
“All these historical buildings have undergone restoration work by government and private agencies in recent years. Even the old Sarawak Museum building is currently undergoing restoration work,” Nicholas added.
Adibah previously has done various research to study local culture especially on the Malays. She is currently doing research on the Malay intangible heritage in Sarawak.
She said in order to lessen the impact of climate change onto heritage sites, proper management is needed apart from proposing more public awareness.
“UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.
“Mitigating climate change means dealing with the causes so that we can limit the extent of change. For this, we could reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.
“The government should adapt to the climate change and deal with its consequences to live with the after effects. One of the examples that can be done is to build a better flood defence to tackle the rising sea levels,” she said.
Adibah stated that sustainability is a concept to make decisions directed at the future by considering the environment.
The basic support of the sustainability concept in planning is creating settlement areas in harmony with the nature or maintaining the continuance of settlement areas by making them become in harmony with the nature.
By raising awareness among people about the importance of preserving valuable architecture, it can then be developed further as tourist attractions, she added.
How would you promote the importance of preserving our heritage?
Nicholas said the involvement of local communities is also important as this will lead to a more sustainable heritage management.
Adibah said the people would need to understand and educate themselves that there is a heritage in need to be conserved.
“We can promote the sites as a tourist attraction through various campaigns to boost local’s knowledge.
“It is important to preserve our cultural heritage, because it keeps our integrity as a people. The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. Hence, it concerns all parties,” said Adibah.
