RESEARCH CENTER FOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Abstract:The study, on the factors leading to World Heritages being in severe danger, would provide an important advice for the management and protection of World Heritages in China. According to the quantitative statistics about threatening factors facing World Heritages, the major factors ‘endangering’ World Heritages include armed conflict, inefficient management and the improper construction. Additionally for the World Cultural Heritages, they are also threatened by the pressure of city development, irrational maintenance or reconstruction, and etc. When threat factors come to the World Natural Heritages, this also include poaching, illegal fishing, and improper agricultural activities such as forest over-harvesting, grazing and so on. However, the prime threat factor facing the World Heritages in China is the pressure brought in by tourism development accompanying with management problems, urban development pressure and water conservancy project. Therefore, this paper offers some advices about the World Heritage protection in China as follows: to clear the value orientation of heritage tourism by controlling negative effects of over development of tourism; to improve institutional management level and try to set a new management system of World Heritage protection; to properly handle the pressure on World Cultural Heritage led by urban development and prevent destruction of extreme natural disasters; to strictly control the road construction and water conservancy projects in the area of World Natural Heritage.
Key words:World Heritage; World Heritage in Danger; threat factor; protection; China