Shedding light on how money is spent from heritage site ticket sales

When you hand over your money to enter a heritage site do you ever wonder where your money goes?

Anyone imagining that money from ticket sales is plowed into archaeological research or heritage preservation activities will be saddened to learn the truth, at least as far as Myanmar's famed Bagan Archaeological Area is concerned. Bagan is one of the country's top tourist attractions and on UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage sites since 1996.

Bagan pagoda (credit G. Kipling)

However, as revealed in a recent tender, the agreement reached between the Government and the Myanmar Tourism Federation (MTF), which took over ticket sales for the Archaeological Area at the beginning of March, provides for only two percent of revenues to be spent on conservation and maintenance. The remainder is split between the state's coffers (90 percent) and MTF (8 percent).

Reportedly, the site attracted more than 240,000 visitors in the past year, generating USD4.1 million in ticket sale revenues.

Bagan pagoda (credit G. Kipling)

Given the poor state of repair of many pagodas in Bagan - not to mention renovations of a dubious quality - it is a shame that the Myanmar government did not see to reinvest more in the preservation of this unique site.

Beating the oil patch bust at Banff National Park

Once known for its stunning mountain scenery and wide open plains, in recent decades the Province of Alberta has become synonymous with the ebb and flow of a resource-based economy built around the Athabasca tar sands. Despite the best efforts (and lots of public funds) of both the Alberta and Canadian governments to scrub the tar sands' negative image, the industry has seriously eroded Canada's credentials as a country committed to environmental protection.

From this perspective the collapse in oil prices over the past year may yet prove to be a blessing in disguise for the province - and the country. At a concrete level, the boom-bust cycle of the extractive sector is making the steady-as-she-goes business model of Banff National Park look all the more attractive.

Banff is one seven parks in Alberta which together constitute the Canadian Rocky Mountains Parks world heritage site. Established in 1885, it is Canada's first national park and the third world-wide. By emphasizing sustainably-paced development that balances conservation with measured infrastructure enhancements, Banff National Park has retained its reputation for providing visitors with a memorable outdoors experience while introducing new or enhanced attractions (e.g. the installation of a via ferrata on Mount Norquay) in a measured way that continues to build visitor numbers.

Banff townsite (credit: Borbrav)

As noted by Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper this week, almost four million visitors are expected in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, up 7.5 percent over the percent and up a further 10 percent over the year before. While the focus on increasing visitor numbers has provoked concern from some quarters in the environmentalist community, the approach being adopted nonetheless demonstrates a sensitivity to the various interests at stake, including protection of the natural environment. Authorities responsible for certain other world heritage sites would do well to take notice.

Palmyra's predecessors: This weeks marks the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas

While so-called Islamic State (IS) has distinguished itself among Islamist militant outfits with the ferocity of its attacks on the ancient cultural heritage of Syria and Iraq, it is worth recalling that IS is merely following in the footsteps of  fellow-travellers such as the Taliban of Afghanistan.

And in this regard tomorrow (March 2, 2016) marks a particularly inauspicious anniversary: it will be precisely 15 years since Taliban fighters began the process of destroying two massive statues of Buddha that had been carved into a hillside in Bamiyan Valley in Central Afghanistan more 1,500 years ago. Recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 2003, the archaeological remains and cultural landscape of Bamiyan Valley contain many ancient Buddhist monasteries and sanctuaries, as well the two Buddhas, which stood 55m and 38m high respectively.

Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan (credit: Mr Afghanistan*)

Following the issuance of an edict in late February 2001 by Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar to destroy all idolatrous statues throughout the country, fighters embarked on a two-week campaign to demolish the Buddha statues, employing rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft cannon and tank shells in the process.

While the destruction was widely condemned at the time, who would have imagined that the world would be in exactly the same situation a decade and a half later, standing by powerlessly as narrow-minded militants in locales as diverse as Timbuktu in Mali and Palmyra in Syria engaged in similarly wanton acts of destruction of the world's cultural and religious heritage.

* https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11024747