‘Missing persons’: Ancient legacies of human–environment interaction in tropical natural properties inscribed under the 1972 World Heritage Convention

Abstract

Cultural and natural values form the core of World Heritage designation. Properties displaying both values, however, comprise a fraction of inscriptions (currently c. 3%) to the World Heritage List. In 1992, when that fraction stood at c. 5%, adoption of the popular ‘cultural landscapes’ category of cultural heritage in 1992 was therefore hailed as a key development under the 1972 World Heritage Convention. This new designation provided, for the first time, a definitive bridge between humans and the environment, and was intended to open the door to World Heritage recognition for underrepresented parties to the Convention, particularly in the Global South, and to pave the way for a diverse range of landscape‐based inscriptions. As important and successful as this category has been in the three decades since its adoption, European sites in the Global North dominate the category and >90% of cultural landscape inscriptions recognise cultural heritage values alone rather than mixed values. This paper examines the largely hidden role of human–environment legacies in tropical World Heritage properties in the Global South, in some of the most biologically diverse and endangered ecosystems on the planet. Specifically, it highlights the long‐term interaction between people and tropical environments as revealed through palaeo science, pre‐recent (>200 years) history, Indigenous and traditional practices. Using exemplars internationally recognised as being wholly of natural outstanding universal value, it argues that limited reference to this evidence in World Heritage narratives potentially inhibits wider recognition of the role that humans have played in shaping the ecological development of contemporary environments.