Battir Landscape Conservation & Management

Bethlehem, Palestine

In 2004 the Ministry of Antiquities identified the landscape of Battir, a village about 7km southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem situated on the line dividing the West Bank from Israel, as a Palestinian cultural heritage site to be documented for a future inscription on the World Heritage List. The Conservation and Management Plan provides a framework for the protection and conservation of the area, a unique repository of ancient irrigation systems and agricultural terraces. The project has focused on landscape planning and cartography and involved the local community in several participatory actions; it has culminated in the physical rehabilitation of historic structures and led to the site being inscribed on the World Heritage in Danger list in 2014.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture