ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to illustrate the multiple and bidirectional connections between heritage studies and environmental law. In particular, I would like to show two competing trends in environmental law and how these may contribute to the evolution of the notion of heritage. The first trend suggests a shift to a more socially oriented and culturally constructed notion of nature that is similar to the dematerialization of heritage in critical heritage studies. The second trend instead is anchored in the principle of national sovereignty and proposes a relationship with nature that is based on a physical notion of the natural environment. In order to illuminate these two trends, I will first analyze the main legal principles/approaches applicable in the field of environmental law. I will explain how these principles may contribute to shaping different notions of heritage. For instance, the ecosystem approach that emerged in conservation studies emphasizes the importance of the human contribution to the conservation of nature. In doing so, it proposes a notion of nature that is hybridized with cultural and social values. This may certainly have an impact on the dematerialization of the notion of heritage in heritage studies. Environmental law may also contribute to the dematerialization of heritage in another way. Environmental legal regimes are increasingly raising attention to how the degradation of the environment may endanger the enjoyment of natural heritage. This enhanced awareness, in turn, may bring to the fore the importance of relying on the relationship of local communities with nature to reverse or mitigate negative environmental problems. Finally, this chapter will discuss the relationship between critical heritage studies and environmental justice. This strand of literature focuses on the recognition, representation and redistribution issues of both environmental problems and environmental regulation. In this sense, it may reshape scholarly discussions on natural heritage in a way that is more in line with socially and culturally oriented notions of heritage. This chapter does not want to suggest that there are only possible synergies between heritage and environmental law. Instead, the analysis proposed here will highlight both synergies and tensions remaining between traditional principles and more critical debates of environmental law, on the one hand, and the objectives of cultural heritage studies on the other. The chapter will conclude that a more human-centred vision of environmental law may contribute to a more culturally oriented notion of heritage.
