In recent years the protection of cultural heritage has been
increasingly related to the objectives of sustainable development. Until
1990 the dominant view has been that cultural heritage is a spiritual
resource, which needs to be protected, without any requirement for
profitability from the investments made in it. Nowadays it is recognized
that heritage also constitutes an economic resource, which has to be used
for development (with obligatory preservation of its authentic cultural
values). The public debate on the role of heritage becomes more active
with regard to the following: improvement of the quality of life by means
of cultural tourism development, creating new jobs, improvement of the
trading environment, etc.
Based on the above, conservation policy is being linked to the
activities in the field of regional planning and environmental protection.
Heritage protection becomes a priority of territorial planning policy
(especially in the instance of historic settlements and areas possessing
outstanding cultural resources) and is connected to the objectives for
safeguarding natural heritage properties, which very often are either
traditionally linked to areas with monuments of culture or possess
cultural resources. Attention is being directed towards new properties in
need of protection, which constitute harmonious combinations of the
environment and the result of human activity on it i.e. the cultural
landscapes.
The described evolution of the approach is related also to the
objectives of “integrated conservation”, which are laid down in two
European Conventions ratified by Bulgaria (The Granada 85 Convention and
the Malta 91 (La Valletta Convention) and are aimed at the coordination of
archaeological explorations and conservation – territorial planning –
environmental protection.
In order to make full-value use of the cultural heritage
contribution to sustainable development, legislative and administrative
prerequisites need to be put in place in the following aspects:
- Coordination between the areas of legislation relating to
heritage – for the protection of the monuments of culture, for
territorial development, and for environmental protection. Such
coordination has been made difficult by the different timing of the
amendments to the legislation in these three areas.
- Upgrading of the management systems in the three aforementioned
areas, in order to allow for an efficient coordination between them at
both central and local level.
- Improvement of the management plans. The new Territorial
Development Act sets new requirements to the set of regimes (“specific
rules and regulations”), which are aimed at coordinating the
territorial planning and conservation policies in the respective
territories. Specific preservation plans were launched as early as the
1980s by the National Institute for Monuments of Culture as tools for
dialogue between conservation actors and urbanism specialists; it is
expected that the draft Cultural Heritage Law will legalize these
tools.
