Introduction
According to Dorfman, (2011)There are different types of heritage which could be natural. Natural heritage can be defined as total biodiversity elements gathered in a place that is naturally blessed with flora and fauna elements which are considered parts of the ecosystem in addition to including some geological features. Australia is a country and a continent that lies in the southern hemisphere and its capital is Canberra. Australia is famous for its natural heritage as there are many natural inherited places which are very famous and important such as the Blue Mountains. To reach the Blue Mountains, people go to the west of Sydney at less than an hour by car. The area covered by the Blue Mountain is about 1436 square kilometers with population that estimated in 2006 with 76,080 persons. The blue mountain is a major destination for tourism especially ecotourism and there are some other areas around it and are considered tourist attractions that attract tourists from all over the world. The mountain is surrounded by many beautiful areas such as Oberon, Lithgow, Richmond and Penrith. According to the World Heritage Listing, (2015), The Blue Mountain of Australia is considered among the world Heritage Area as it is the 14th on the world level; this was declared in November 2000. As the Blue Mountain is among the world heritage areas, it has an outstanding value to humanity and nature so it has been added to the World Heritage list in order to be known for all as an international landmark representing natural heritage. The current research is discussing the Blue Mountain through analyzing the approaches of planning, protection and conservation for it by heritage sites whether local or international, natural cultural or mixed.
Dissection
Many approaches are used for planning, protection and conservation of natural heritage areas such as the proactive approach which is used in order to protect these areas and keep them away of harm and damage. The Blue Mountain is an area where there is a variety of geography and geomorphology features such as waterfalls and cliffs that are of great biological value resulting from the high biodiversity they include and the cultural values of the post European settlement, it has also a variety of water production and natural beauty of wilderness that are very common to be found there. (Mylne et al 2010) Understanding the nature of the area with its cultural context makes it better in protecting the area's integrity According to (the Blue Mountain Conservation Society 2015)Protecting the area of the Blue Mountain which is called the GBMA referring to The Great Blue Mountain Area includes the governmental role of the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales as they set legislations and laws that tend to protect natural heritage areas as the Australian government issues acts of law that are prepared t protect these natural areas from harm and dangers such as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 which was and still a tool for Australia's obligations to be implemented according to some environmental agreements which are multilateral and are interested in the world heritage protection. The responsible minister of consideration is the person who is in responsible for applying the law on any action that has an impact on the values of natural heritage. He is to apply the required penalties for any breaching actions to the set laws and legislations that protect the area. Breaching this legislation is considered a crime and the laws can deal with someone who meant to breach these laws. (nsw 2015)
Another approach is integrated approach that includes all relevant aspects regarding the preservation of areas with natural heritage such as the Blue Mountain. Many organizations which are meant to adopt such approach in order to cover all areas of interest and care with the Blue Mountain and other natural heritage areas. (dnr 2015) Among these organizations is the Blue Mountain conservation Society which has many integrated activities such as helping the poor, preservation activities, nursery and bush care in addition to caring for the Great Blue Mountain Area. This organization is adopting an integrated approach in protecting the Blue Mountain which are protecting the national parks that contain animal species that are endangered as the towns that are all around the Blue Mountain area contain national parks which are integrated within the production area. The organization is following an integrity approach that includes monitoring the work of acts to be applied on those who breach the laws regarding the natural heritage areas, it also includes monitoring people's behavior in these areas, community consultation and it also provides the local government with the chance to work with them and then the government can provide the society preservation projects with the needed fund to make them work. The organization is trying to raise the land that national parks and reserves are covering by making environmental projects that tend to implement projects such as the Public Lands Rationalization which is meant to preserve the lands and other projects regarding nature and the environment. National parks, wilderness, reserves and natural areas are all integrated within the projects adopted by the society in addition to provide new innovative ideas in natural heritage care such as weed management project. As the place is full of animal species that are rare and valuable, the society tends to provide them with care and control in order to protect the animals from excessive hunting through applying programs that provide these animals with protection and raise the public's awareness regarding dangers of excessive hunting. As the society is following an integrity approach, all means of protection are included such as studying the new legislations issued by the NSW Parliament in order to put tourism in a new development scheme that cares for natural heritage. Risk management is also involved within this approach as there could be some risks on the animals and plants of the area so this is also taken into consideration by many organizations. (Blue Mountain Conservation Society 2015)
The conventional approach is adopted by many governmental and nongovernmental organizations through raising people's awareness regarding how to reserve the natural heritage of areas as the Blue Mountain where there are many valuable things such as the wilderness, waterfalls, plants and animals. There are many management challenges that are meant to be taught to tourists who visit the place as they may commit mistakes that can endanger the place and lead it to have risky accidents. This is also included within the integrity approach as risk management and education are both connected t each other. Organizations such as the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage which is a governmental organization sees that it is important to provide tourists with education about how to set fire, take photos and hunt because they endanger the rare species of animals to die out and they make fires in the bushes. There are many visitors to Australia from all over the world and this makes it urgent to provide them with the needed education about how to keep the natural heritage safe. The organization has a strategic plan about how to make a philosophical base for managing the area and setting many policies and strategies to protect it according to the World Heritage Convention and its Operational Guidelines and the Australian World Heritage management principles that are ensured by the Australian government regulations such as the Biodiversity Conservation Act. (Environment 2015)
According to environment 2015, as the Blue Mountain is an area that has many valuables and that valuables need to be appreciated by others so the value lead approach is followed by organizations such as The Blue Mountain City Councils which is an organization of the government and it is concerned with how to raise the value of the Blue Mountain area to people who never visits the place or to those who are used to visiting it through applying certain programs based on a value lead approach as such programs and publications that show how far the place is important to natural heritage. (ShortCuts 2011)The organization is following some processes such as the dynamic process which is prepared in order to protect the landscape by raising its value so the organization is setting conferences and meetings that are about the history of the place and why it is important to be on the world's heritage list. This can declare how much is the place valuable and why people should keep it with its details. The organization is keeping the area's eucalypt-dominated ecosystems which is very important for ecotourism and scientists. The value of the site is also in its primitive species of plants and animals that may die out soon and need to be valued. The organization also gives interest to the plant families that are also endangered to extinct. (Bmcc 2015).
The inclusive approach is used by many organizations that tend to protect the Blue Mountain area and manage its relevant issues such as managing diversity within the area and this is not a simple task as it needs high professionalism in order to study the cultural heritage of the place in order to set a reasonable plan for improving it. (Hall 2014) The place includes a great variety of animal diversity and plant diversity which leads organizations to think of solutions of management for the places' services. The diversity is also included within the ecosystem. Some non governmental organizations try to protect and preserve the place by marketing for it to get benefits and to make a great value for the place in addition to attract tourists from all over the world to enjoy coming to it. Marketing for the place depends on attracting tourists interested to be eco friendly in order to bring them in the Blue Mountain and enjoy the fantastic landscape it has. (Hall &Page 2014) According to the Global Tourism and Leisure Pty, (2009) The local tourism (LGA) organizations give great interest in focusing on the Blue Mountains as a major destination for ecosystem all over the world, they try to identify the tourists' needs and build strategies based on meeting these needs and at the same time preserving the natural heritage of the place. They work hard to market for the place and maximize the tourist revenues and provide advice regarding local tourism for all tourist companies in Australia. Managing the tourism industry in the Blue Mountain is very important and needs much more care from both governmental and non governmental organizations. (Howard and Papayannis 2013)
The authenticity approach is followed by organizations that try to keep the natural heritage sites such as the Blue Mountains as these organizations try to keep the natural heritage of the place without change or harm. Among these organizations are local associations and international associations that tend to assert the value of the place through following certain activities and apply them then to make assessment for these activities and evaluate results in order to measure whether or not they succeeded in raising the public awareness regarding the natural heritage importance.(Boyd 2012) Examples on these associations are the Katoomba RSL Club which is established on the basis that environment is very important for life of people and that Australia is a major tourism destination that has a great natural heritage that needs to be preserved. Another one is the Blue Mountain Netball Association which is also based on basics of environmental care and as it is founded in the Blue Mountains, it gives more interest to Blue Mountain activities and then assessment and evaluation is done through many ways such as surveys, online surveys, observation and questionnaires. These small organizations have greater effect than any other organizations because they are near the public, affecting them and learning about their needs as most people in Australia respect the natural heritage of it yet they don't really know how to keep this heritage and that is the role of such simple organizations and associations that should be given much interest from the government that should help them and fund them. (Bluemts 2015)
Sustainability is a major factor that helps countries keep their natural heritage and get the best benefits from the landmarks and great natural marvels in them such as the Blue Mountain, for example, as it is considered one of the Australian great landmarks and a symbol of its natural heritage so sustainability is needed to be performed to keep its natural elements and improve them as well. According to Sustainability, (2015)the Blue Mountain which is famous for its beautiful landscapes, waterfalls and cliffs that are not found any other way in the world, is a precious place that needs efforts to be exerted from different societies and organizations to increase people's information about the site, the most interesting places and the most interesting activities to be practiced. Among these organizations are the small local clubs that are mainly established by the youth and most of them are on the internet as social media pages or forums. These societies are able to keep sustainability of the Blue Mountain as a site and as a natural heritage of Australia. They keep the place's sustainability by building a wide audience sharing the same environmental ideas on social media sites or on their own sites that witness millions and millions of people in order to make sure they are aware of all relevant issues regarding keep natural elements and how to follow this. Among these clubs, associatesand sites on the internet are: Blue Mountains Bird Observers www.bmbirding.com.
Conclusion
Keeping natural heritage is a very important process that all countries with a natural heritage consider and give due care. There are many approaches that are set to keep the natural heritage of an area such as the integrity approach and the inclusive and others. These approaches are practiced by both governmental organizations and non governmental organizations in order to reach sustainability in preserving the natural resources such as the Blue Mountain which is found in Australia and is considered a basic landmark of natural heritage as it is listed the 14th among the whole world heritage list. Many stakeholders are involved in the process of keeping the natural heritage as the native people of the place, visitors, tourguides, researchers, tourists, governors and businessmen are all considered stakeholders involved within the process of keeping the Blue Mountain natural heritage. There are many different types of organizations that are concerned in keeping the sustainability of natural heritage and they are ranging from huge governmental organizations and those of the small sites on the web and both are concerned in raising the value of natural heritage such as raising the value of the Blue Mountain. This paper is discussing the Blue Mountain and how many approaches can be used by companies and business owners in order to attain sustainability and keeping the natural heritage without changes. The Blue Mountain is a marvelous place that should receive more interest from the government and local communities in order to maintain its sustainability. Australia, (2015)
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