Vigan the only UNESCO World Heritage City in the Philippines won the World Heritage Centre’s highest award for Best Practice in Sustainable Conservation & Management of World Heritage Properties.
This recognition was conveyed to Secretary-General Virginia Miralao of UNESCO Philippines and Vigan City Mayor Eva Marie Medina by Director Kishore Rao of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
Vigan’s Heritage Conservation Program prevailed over twenty-eight submissions of best practices worldwide. A ten-member selection committee, consisting of representatives of the UNESCO regional groups, the Advisory Bodies and the World Heritage Centre, reviewed entries according to the criteria.
After two rounds of consultations, Vigan garnered the most number of votes for: (a) good management practice achieved with relatively limited resources which makes it adaptable by other world heritage site managers; (b) strong local community participation in the conservation and management of the site ; and (c) the development of unique multi-faceted conservation scheme of the site. Mayor Eva Medina accepted Vigan City’s award in the Closing Event of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention in Kyoto, Japan last November 8, 2012..
The foregoing is the message of Director Kishore Rao of the World Heritage Centre before the presentation of the award.
“Reflection has been going on for years within the WH community about establishing recognition related to management of WH sites and values. In particular, capacity building discussions have brought to light the great interest for sharing best practices among WH sites and managers. It was in that framework that the WH Committee called for a One-off Initiative at its 35th session in 2011, when it “requested ‘the World Heritage Centre, with the support of the Advisory Bodies, “to explore ways of recognizing and rewarding best practice through a one-off initiative at the closing event of the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention (November 2012, Japan)…”.
By the end of November 2011, the WH Centre launched a request to all States Parties to submit cases of their WH sites that could apply for this recognition.
In order to be eligible as a best practice, the World Heritage site had to apply with the following criteria: Successful and sustainable management had to be clearly demonstrated;
Best practices were considered those that are tried, tested and applied in different situations and in a wider context;
An overall good performance on all headings mentioned in the submission form, with an exemplary performance in at least one of the areas;
An outstanding example of innovative management in dealing with one or more management challenges / issues that could offer lessons to other sites.
Twenty-eight submissions were received from 23 States Parties, representing all UNESCO regions (8 nature and 20 culture):
A 10-member selection committee, consisting of representatives of the Advisory Bodies, the UNESCO Regional Groups and the World Heritage Centre, examined all the submissions.
Four proposals received most of the support of the selection committee:
– Wet Tropics of Queensland in Australia;
– Gros Morne National Park, Canada;
– Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area, China;
– Historic Town of Vigan, Philippines,.
And after two rounds of consultation, the Historic Town of Vigan (Philippines) obtained the highest level of support on the following grounds:
1) good management practice has been achieved with relatively limited resources which should make it adaptable in all countries;
2) the local community was well integrated in many aspects of the sustainable conservation and management of the property. Even before the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List, public forums and multi-stakeholder workshops were organized to formulate a vision statement for the City.
3) an interesting multi-faceted approach to the protection of the site has been developed. The Vigan Heritage Conservation Program is well funded, with allocations coming from the public and private sectors. Tourism and heritage-related economic enterprises have also been fostered.
Moreover, the city government has established a Heritage Conservation Division with trained personnel to ensure that all physical interventions within the protected zone are properly carried out according to approved engineering and architectural plans. I would like to remind you that the Historic Town of Vigan was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1999, as the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia. Established in the 16th century, Vigan’s architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines, from China and from Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that have no parallel anywhere in East and South-East Asia.
This exercise has highlighted some of the best practices connected to the World Heritage Convention in relation to site management. This being, as already mentioned, a one-off initiative at the request of the World Heritage Committee, the Committee will be reflecting on how sharing positive examples of implementing the World Heritage Convention can be developed further as a capacity building measure to the benefit of the wider WH community.
The results of this initiative will be widely disseminated, through the World Heritage website, our publications, such as the World Heritage Review and news statements. We trust that this initiative will stimulate best management practices and provide inspiration for other sites.
I would now like to invite Madam Eva Marie Medina, Mayor of Vigan and the members of the Philippines delegation: Mr Ferdinand Medina, Former Mayor of Vigan, Ms Virginia Miralao, Secretary General of the Philippines National Commission for UNESCO, Mr Eric Zerrudo, Vice Chair of the National Commission, and Her Excellency Ms. Christina Ortega, Philippine Ambassador to UNESCO to join me on the podium.
It is my great pleasure to hand over the certificate of recognition to Mrs Medina, the first female Mayor of Vigan, who has assumed this important function during 17 years.
We all know that managing a WH city means striking the right balance between preservation and the interests of the inhabitants and ensuring that both thrive.
Madam, I wish to congratulate you and your administration for the successful approach in managing the World Heritage Site of Vigan.