World Heritage Site status at risk? Unesco addresses St Paul’s Hill issue

KUALA LUMPUR – Are Melaka and George Town at risk of losing their joint Unesco World Heritage Site (WHS) listing? Over-development, myopic policies, and lack of community participation seem to point that way. 

The recent move by the Melaka government to change the name of St Paul’s Hill to Bukit Melaka sparked an active debate on the lack of community engagement in decisions that involve diverse communities in a city.

The debate has, however, taken a new twist with questions raised on the possibility of Melaka and George Town losing their WHS status. This is due to the disregard for community participation in decisions that affect cultural heritage of spaces within the site.

Both are jointly inscribed in the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) World Heritage Sites list as “Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca” in July 2008.

Is the disregard for community engagement and participation grounds for losing a listing?

In response to questions from The Vibes on this matter, the Unesco press office based in Paris said delisting can happen when a property has lost the features that warranted its inscription on the WHS list. 

In an email response, Unesco’s press office said community participation is certainly an expectation firmly upheld in Unesco’s operational guidelines and key strategic objectives. 

As more and more living heritage cities and sites in urban areas are inscribed on the World Heritage List, community participation naturally becomes a vital component of WHS management,” it said.

In 2015, the General Assembly of States Parties to the 1972 World Heritage Convention adopted a policy recommendation to integrate Sustainable Development Perspective into the Processes of the World Heritage Convention. 

This recommendation reiterates the role of local communities, stressed Unesco. 

“Communities” or community participation in site management is one of its key strategic objectives – the 5Cs: conservation, credibility, capacity building, communications and communities, designated by the World Heritage Committee to facilitate implementation of the World Heritage Convention, it said.

Unesco’s Operational Guidelines (paragraph 26) for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention talks about “enhancing the role of communities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention” and the term “communities” can be found in several parts of the operational guidelines. 

Did the Melaka government contravene principles that warranted the WHS listing?

There are no specifics on the hill in Melaka in the nomination dossier for Melaka and George Town but there is mention of the “ruins of the church on St Paul’s Hill”. 

The dossier is focused more on the range of shophouses and townhouses, as well as their authenticity and integrity.

The Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the sites do, however, extensively reiterate that both cities bear testimony to a living multi-cultural heritage and tradition of Asia, where the many religions and cultures met and coexisted – an attribute reflected by the different names the hill is referred to by the local community. 

This essentially calls for the shared heritage of the various communities in both cities to be acknowledged and upheld. 

It is interesting to note that in the last 50 years, three sites have been removed from the Unesco WHS list. 

The most recent was Liverpool in England (July 2021) where developments such as the Liverpool Waters project were deemed to have led to “serious deterioration” of the area’s OUVs and caused “significant loss to its authenticity and integrity”.

The second was Oman’s Arabian Oryx (2007) sanctuary, which was removed from the list following rampant poaching and habitat degradation. 

The third, Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany (2009) – saw residents voting that the Unesco title was unnecessary after the construction of a bridge to reduce traffic congestion led to the site being placed under the WHS “endangered list” in 2008. – The Vibes, August 22, 2022