SAVE UNESCO'S
WORLD HERITAGE SITES
Before the arrival of the Portuguese, Macau was a small fishing village with a population of 400. With the trade agreements between China and Portugal in 1557, many Chinese and Portuguese merchants settled in Macau. Under the Portuguese administration, it quickly became the epicenter of trade in the region.
Since the 1500s, in this area, people with different cultural backgrounds, different professional skills and different customs have settled in Macau, holding various cultural activities. They come from Portugal, Spain, India, Malaysia and even Africa. Just under this circumstance, Macao became one of the windows for China to contact modern western technology and culture. At the same time, foreigners living in Macau also introduce Chinese culture and customs to countries all over the world in diverse ways. Macau is also one of the very first places for foreign countries to know China.
Historic Center of Macau is located at the southern end of the peninsula. It is a place where Portuguese and other foreigners used to live in the colonial period. It includes 22 historical buildings and 8 squares. The buildings in this area present all the typical characteristics of the harbor city and traditional Chinese-Portuguese settlements, including the integration and interaction of Chinese and Western cultures.
Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)
The buildings in the Historic Center of Macau were built from the 1500s to the 1900s, with a time span of more than 400 years, witnessing one of the earliest and longest-lasting encounters between China and the West. It is the oldest, largest, best preserved and most concentrated coexisting building group of Eastern and Western styles in China. As a result, the integration of Chinese and Western cultures is the most important feature of the Historic Center of Macau. They are the imprints of tangible and intangible culture accumulated by the collision and interaction between human and nature, Chinese and Western.
For example, the worship of “A Ma” among the local residents of Macau. The belief in “A Ma” in Macau is the same tradition with the southeastern coastal areas of China. However, due to the particularity of the social and historical environment, the A-Ma Temple in Macau is different from other temples of the same type in China. It not only has the typical characteristics of the A Ma worship in China, but also is the first place to spread Chinese A Ma culture to Europe.
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The Historic Center of Macau shows the history of the spread of religious culture and the harmonious coexistence of various religions. In China's historical areas, it is rare to see this feature of coexistence of multiple cultures.
For example, Na Tcha Temple was built next to the St. Paul's, and the church and the temple are very close. But there is no conflict between the two cultures. Many traditional Chinese customs and traditions have not disappeared due to the influence of Western culture, but formed a complementary relationship between the two.
Besides, it not only preserves the spatial form of Portuguese harbor city layout, but also the traditional streets and lanes inhabited by Chinese people. The maintenance and preservation of these street styles and urban fabric shows the respect for cultural diversity.
Identification of Threats
The first pertinent threat posed to the Historic Centre of Macau is overtourism.
As a result of the Historic Centre of Macao being inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005, relentless promotional efforts are marketed by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), exclusively focusing on growth, with little concern on over-the-limit vistorship impacts.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) notes that over-the-limit occurs when “the number of visitors is excessive in relation to the carrying capacity of the destination or site to accommodate that flow” (UNWTO, 2004:3) Macau’s land mass covers only 30.8 square kilometers (data published by the city’s Statistic and Census Service in 2019). It is now listed as the highest population density in the world at 21,100 people per sq kilometre.
The director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) had informed reporters that “the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge had helped further push up visitor arrivals”. This 34-mile bridge reduces the driving time for Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population to 30 mins instead of 3 hours. In 2018, it was recorded that nearly 35 million visitors arrived in Macau, up by 9.8% from 2017 (Statistics and Census Service). Visitor arrivals by land surged by 18.9% year on year (approx. 22.15 million) with 1.05 million people entering via the HKZM bridge.
70% (25.26 million) of Macau tourists are from the Mainland, of which 10.6 million are through the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visas implemented in 2003.
Due to the high influx, a rise in gaming related crimes, sex work and other criminal activities are of concern to the Judicial Police. Besides social problems, congestion and environmental deterioration were reported in a study by du Cros 2009. Other negative and social impacts, such as human and traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, high property prices pushing locals out of the city and closure of small traditional businesses.
In accordance to our framework for threat assessments, the threat is therefore considered high.
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A lack of ethical tourism practices is the cause of overtourism. Another example is the 2019 Macau Light Festival, organised by MGTO annually to make Macau a world center of tourism and leisure. This disputed mapping show called “Glorious Splendor in Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China'' evoked widespread reaction and discontent from different nationalities after the Chinese flag and national emblem including Tiananmen Square in Beijing were projected on the facade of the Ruins of St Paul’s.
In response, the Chancery Office of Diocese released a statement that:
“the Ruins of St Paul’s was a landmark of the city and also rich in historical and religious significance. The facade remained a symbol of the Catholic Faith in Macau, the faithful of different nationalities who shared deep sentiment. The use of the historical monument should correspond to the context of the site and be respectful to the faith where the remains of a number of martyrs are buried”.
Sharing the same view was a local resident, Mr Wong “Even though the facade was no longer church property, it had a long history in Macau and was a sacred place for the harmonious coexistence of ethic groups in the eyes of many citizens… the controversy came amid restrictions and persecution of religious believers and activities by the mainland authorities''.
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Ethical principles in tourism in Article 4 of UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics states that “The understanding and promotion of the ethical values common to humanity, with an attitude of tolerance and respect for the diversity of religious, philosophical and moral beliefs, are both the foundation and the consequence of responsible tourism; stakeholders in tourism development and tourists themselves should observe the social and cultural traditions and practices of all peoples, including those of minorities and indigenous peoples and to recognize their worth”.
Without the concerted effort of government stakeholders in practising ethical tourism, this will bring about the loss of character and identity of the city, degrading the World Heritage values, impacting poor visitor experience and generating negative sentiments by Macanese towards tourism.
Assessment of Conservation Management Plans
Lack of responsible tourism planning caused another most pressing man-made threat, which is the accelerated growth in urban development driven by the expansion of the gaming industry. Due to negligence, careless management and bad urban planning on the part of the local and national government (the State Party), several preserved buildings in the Historic Center of Macau have been affected in the past few years.
Despite having the Urban Planning Law of 2013, the Land Law and the Cultural heritage Protection Law in 2014 in place by the Macau government, the rapid construction of high rise building projects, inadequate height assessment, and land reclamations are affecting the visual integrity of the world heritage site.
This can be seen on projects at 18-20 Calcada Gaio and Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues. These constructions are symptomatic of local government failures in protecting cultural heritage and improper urban planning. While the constructions do not affect the Guai Lighthouse as a heritage asset directly, the principal sightlines and visual vistas are disrupted, causing a change in the skyline and integrity of the heritage landscape.
It is important that the integrity of Guai Lighthouse is visually connected with the seascape, as attributes that reflect Macau’s OUV and its role in the golden age of trade and influence on the rest of the world.
With the residential high-rise project located at Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues, the new buildings will form a colossal wall of 90m high and more than 140m wide in close vicinity to Guia Lighthouse. The risk posed is extremely high.
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Broadly, there is a lack of Heritage Impact Assessment, conservation management plan and systems. Additionally, there seems to be lax supervision and low penalties imposed upon threats posed to the Historic Centre of Macau.
From UNESCO’s perspective, the most urgent matter is for the State Party to submit the Management Plan to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC) which has been delayed since 2015.
The Management Plan should contain action plans and regulations to protect the visual corridors, and designated areas must not have new buildings or obstructions to the view of the sky in and around the heritage sites, including regulations limiting the height of new buildings on sites and areas in and outside of the buffer zones.
Suggested Conservation Management Strategies
The government (local, regional and national) has an important role to play in the governance process of Macao and the practice of ethical tourism. There is a need for integrated decision making at government departmental level at the Macao government planning and tourism units as they are the principal implementers in the political process of responsible tourism and urban development. They will also be in the position to implement incentives, impose requirements and penalties to alter behaviours and practices on a healthier growth of tourism and urban development to encourage heritage preservation and sustainability.
Instead of a top down steering directive, the government can be more hands-on, understand the grounds, be engaged and manage partnerships. A collaborative effort between government and the community’s desires and goals for the buildings, streets and squares to be taken into consideration, as these are living spaces still used by the community - important considerations to protect and manage the outstanding universal values of Macau’s tangible and intangible heritage and its authentic hybrid traditions. To manage the growth of new developments, the buildings conserved can be explored for adaptive reuse.
In achieving sustainable heritage tourism, training and better triad engagement between tourism and heritage management authorities and the local communities can be put in place in understanding the management of tourism impacts while enhancing visitor experience and at the same time honor and respect the communities’ lifestyles, religion and sacredness of sites.
We believe that the balance of preservation and tourism management of change in urban areas have to work hand in hand.
This change from profit-centered development mode to greater emphasis for sustainable development focusing on building the social and civic capital will help safeguard the Historic Centre of Macau for posterity.
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The End.
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macau-diocese-angry-at-ruins-of-st-pauls-light-show/86263#
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