Lost to history: The world’s heritage sites face a crumbling future

Ghana has launched a tourism campaign called Year of Return, encouraging descendants of enslaved Africans to reconnect with the land of their ancestors. A key component of the campaign is visiting the country’s forts and castles – controversial but significant symbols of the African diaspora.

Problematically, many of these heritage sites are at risk of rising sea levels due to climate change. The flagship 18th century Fort Kongenstein, at Ada, has already been completely submerged by the Atlantic Ocean. Projections are that, by 2050, vulnerable heritage sites along Africa’s coastline will more than triple, to nearly 200, in a high-emission scenario.

What’s more, climate change is just one of many factors that is leading to the destruction of heritage sites all over the world. Wars; unregulated construction and infrastructure projects; moves to address social injustice; unchecked tourism; and the cost of maintenance and preservation are placing heritage sites in peril. Without them, we risk losing what the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) terms ‘our legacy from the past, what we live with today and what we pass on to future generations’. However not everyone is sad to see them go.

Wars have always exacted a heavy toll on cultural heritage but Al Qaeda’s attack on tombs in the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu in 2012 led to the International Criminal Court (ICC) classifying heritage destruction as a war crime for the first time. Despite this, the Islamic State deliberately targeted heritage sites in Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2017, causing substantial and irreplaceable losses. Amongst the destruction, the 3,000-year-old ancient city of Nimrud was bulldozed to the ground.

Now, as the Russian bombardment of Ukraine continues into its second year, UNESCO is monitoring religious sites, museums, monuments, buildings of historical and artistic interest, and libraries. Since the start of the war in February 2022, the body says 289 heritage sites have been damaged.

Heritage sites are also falling prey to the process of modernisation. Disregarding its origins as one of the world’s oldest and longest-lasting civilisations, Egypt is embarking on large-scale urban renewal. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s government has demolished tombs and cultural centres in Cairo and relocated families from historic neighbourhoods to high-rise apartments at the edge of the city. The construction effort is being overseen by the Egyptian military and only in a few cases have preservationists managed to save historical monuments.

While heritage sites hold emotional and symbolic value and provide a sense of identity and continuity for some, for others they commemorate painful periods of history and expose deep psychological wounds. There has been a surge of anti-racism activism with global movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM) and South Africa’s #Rhodes Must Fall, challenging systemic inequalities and the legacies of colonialism. Statues seen to represent oppression have been removed – among them imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, who was toppled from his University of Cape Town plinth in 2015, and slave trader Edward Colston, who was hurled into a river in Bristol, England, in 2020.

With so much stacked against their survival, tourism may be the saving grace for heritage sites. Major international cultural attractions, particularly those that have earned UNESCO World Heritage Site status, draw millions of visitors each year and generate valuable tourism revenues. But this comes with a downside as concerns grow about overtourism and wear and tear on ancient structures. With five million people having trapsed the shores of Venice so far in 2023, the Venice City Council has instituted preservation measures such as banning large cruise ships; charging a fee for day-trippers and monitoring tourist movements by tracking cell phones. 

For cash strapped governments, maintaining and preserving heritage sites is a costly exercise. South Africa boasts 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, many of which have been plagued by mismanagement and infrastructure collapse in recent years.

This year, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has allocated at least R152 million to revitalise Robben Island – the site of Nelson Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment. On a much bigger scale, things are getting smelly in the Cradle of Mankind. Billions of rand is needed to repair Mogale City’s wastewater treatment plant that is polluting the environmentally sensitive area.

The decay of colonial-era heritage sites in post-apartheid South Africa reflects new political agendas, shifting societal values and the economic imperatives of current times. While the Kimberley Mine Museum, including the Big Hole, still attracts large numbers of visitors, much of the mining town’s heritage has been degraded and destroyed. With metalwork stripped from canons and monument sites turned into car parks, it suggests that diamonds, after all, may not be forever.

The future of the world’s heritage sites is anything but assured. In some countries, their demise is already seen as inevitable. Preservation efforts have failed, and governments are using drones and 3D scans of sites as last-ditch attempts to record them and keep them for posterity in museums.

But in challenging times, global solidarity and collaboration are needed more than ever.

Heritage sites can play an important role in connecting us all to a shared history, showcase the diversity of culture, promote empathy, and inform contemporary decision-making with our learnings of the past. Much can still be done to ensure this.

To protect heritage sites against climate change, we will need site-specific vulnerability assessments and exposure monitoring. To save them from war, we will need global cooperation to uphold international conventions and treaties, and to impose sanctions and prosecuting where necessary. We will need a combination of legal frameworks, community involvement, and careful planning to strike a balance between urban development and heritage site preservation. We will need sustainable tourism plans that maximise the economic benefits of tourism while shielding heritage sites from overcrowding and damage.

Amidst growing calls for decolonisation and restitution, heritage items usurped by colonial powers and long housed in Western museums are being returned to their countries of origin. Future preservation strategies will need to support the establishment of new museums in the Global South. This will require a lot of money.

Time will tell whether future generations will place enough value on heritage sites to prioritise their preservation. Right now, it appears many could be lost forever to the annals of history as they are submerged in the oceans, tossed into rivers, or reduced to rubble in construction sites.