Opportunities to leverage World Heritage Sites for local development in the Alps

In recent years research within the EU project CHERPLAN and the Global Regions Initiative studied a total of 33 natural and cultural heritage sites in South-Eastern Europe and the Alpine Space with over-used and unused development opportunities. The key success factors analysis was applied to nine pilot sites in the CHERPLAN project to better understand the opportunities and bottle necks of heritage sites, to contribute to local and regional development and to create benefit for local communities. A follow-up study extended the investigations to 24 World Heritage (WH) properties within the Alpine Space, based on the WH Convention's nomination files, management plans and the documents of the Periodic Reporting 2nd cycle (2013 / 2014). The studies evaluated the key success factors and the potential to use heritage sites as resources for local development. The studies focuses on identifying the state-of-the art, bottlenecks and solutions to optimize impact and to contribute to sustainable development processes in and around heritage sites. The four historic centres and the five serial nominations of the Alpine Space in the WH list are situated on the rim of the Alpine Convention area and, because of their particular characteristics, have little impact on local development and create limited added value for local communities. The other 15 sites are situated in rural and remote areas and present considerable unused development opportunities. All the WH sites have very high Natural and Cultural Capital and its Accessibility due to their Outstanding Universal Value, their uniqueness, accessibility and the established education and research facilities. The sites in the high Alps perform rather less well in terms of Limits and Pre-requisites for Development, either because of the remote location and difficult environmental conditions or because of limited marketing and promotion prospects of their brands. The main weaknesses and opportunities emerged in the third key factors group Strategy, Cooperation and Sustainability: lack of public private cooperation, strategic planning, integrated management plans, sustainable development concepts and involvement of stakeholders. The holistic development approach, targeted at sustainable growth and benefit for local people, and stakeholders involvement, is not yet considered adequately in WH strategies and in the Periodic Reporting.