World Heritage Site Management Plan 2020-2025

World Heritage Site Management Plan 2020?2025

Tulips by the Temperate House

Foreword 1

Syon Vista and the Palm House

Executive Summary 3

Executive Summary

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention defines World Heritage Sites as `places of Outstanding Universal Value to the whole of humanity'. This means that their cultural and/or natural significance is `so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity' (UNESCO, 2019). There is no higher recognition of heritage value globally. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) was inscribed onto the World Heritage List in July 2003, acknowledging the value of its unique history, diverse historic landscape, rich architectural legacy, botanic collections and its position as one of the world's leading botanic gardens for scientific research and education.

Since the botanic gardens were first established by Princess Augusta in 1759, the site and collections have continued to grow and evolve through the work of RBG Kew's scientists, horticulturists, educators and many volunteers. Over this time, RBG Kew has remained faithful to its original purpose, with botanists continuing to collect specimens and exchange expertise internationally. RBG Kew's landscape, buildings and plant collections combine to form a unique testimony to developments in garden design, horticulture and botanical science that have subsequently diffused around the world.

Need for a Plan

World Heritage Sites (WHS) are recognised under the terms of the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention). By joining the Convention, the UK Government has committed to identify, protect, conserve, present and transmit such sites to future generations. The publishing of WHS Management Plans are recommended in UNESCO's Operational Guidelines and by the UK Government's planning guidance and form a material consideration when determining planning decisions.

As an organisation, RBG Kew has well-developed objectives and departmental strategies, which are referenced in and linked to this Management Plan. The primary purpose of the WHS Management Plan is to bring together the key strands of each departmental strategy into a single document, setting the management framework for sustaining the `Outstanding Universal Value' (OUV) of the RBG Kew WHS. RBG Kew recognises the profound responsibility of the WHS designation, and its objectives are embedded across RBG Kew's mission and strategy.

Setting

The WHS Management Plan has been prepared at a time of increased development in the wider city beyond the WHS, as reflected in the number of applications currently coming forward for major development along the Great West Corridor in Brentford. The WHS has a very specific set of relationships with its setting, which are an integral part of its design, its experience and therefore of its OUV.

Management of change within the wider environs of the WHS is critical to the conservation of OUV. Existing development in the setting of the WHS has already harmed the site's OUV and our ability to appreciate it. Further unsympathetically designed and/or sited development would result in increased cumulative harm. Management of such development is therefore key, and a detailed analysis of setting for the WHS has been included as part of this Management Plan to guide developers and support relevant decision makers with regard to planning applications for developments.

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