Heritage strategy planning handbook: An international primer

Annotation by Alex Marshall. Author Marc Denhez describes an overview of heritage policies that exist throughout the world in an attempt to recommend how a country can improve its strategy for protecting the built environment. Denhez begins by outlining the problems with the current paradigm in heritage preservation. The current paradigm involves a \“three pillar\” approach: recognition, protection and financial support. The problems outlined with this approach apply to planning jurisdictions throughout the world and the change in heritage philosophy can be attributed to the shifting views throughout the world. The book then shifts towards an examination of the different models that are used to obtain the same objectives. The book looks at the practice of preserving the built environment from four different countries: The United States, Canada, Britain, and France. The common objective from these different policies is the focus on controls and inducements as the primary tool used to preserve the built environment. Once the common ground was reached, the author offered suggestions as how the entire international community could come together in an attempt to preserve the built environment. Denhez describes the steps taken by the international community to come up with an agreement on the preservation of the built environment. He briefly describes the Hague Convention of 1954, the World Heritage Convention 1974, and other international declarations, including: the Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development 1992, and the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements. After outlining the international checklist and the statutory precedents, Denhez reviews in greater depth the current protective legislation enacted to preserve the built environment. With a review of the economic parameters that drive most decisions in the modern world, Denhez was able to take his research and make recommendations to the international community. The author\’s conclusion was that national strategy should meet the goals of housing, heritage and sustainable development simultaneously. The information was presented in a well-structured document which laid out the history for the reader, before the author offered his point and the direction where he would like to see the policy move. There were a number of charts included throughout the text which simplified each point and made it easier for the audience to grasp. The intended audience for this book would be people in the heritage business, especially young planners who have the opportunity to incorporate some of the author\’s ideas when drafting future policies. This book manages to accomplish the goal it set out to, making a recommendation to planners for ways in which they can manage and preserve the built environment more effectively. The ideas were communicated effectively and the overview of past policies was helpful for the reader to gain an understanding of the past attempts to promote heritage protection. Perhaps some more information regarding the past international treaties would be beneficial for greater understanding. But overall, this reading was very informative and highly recommended for anyone wishing to examine the past, present and future of international preservation of our built environment.
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