Between International Law, Kastom and Sustainable Development: Cultural Heritage in Vanuatu - Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across the Asia-Pacific Region - page 26

on the tentative WHC list could be aligned. While tourism was identified as an area
with the strongest potential for development in the country's Priority and Action
Agenda 2006 -2015 (Vanuatu Government 2006 ), its negative impact on cultural
heritage in Vanuatu does not figure prominently in the document. Despite it men-
tioning a “growing support for recognising traditional skills and valuing custom
and culture” (Vanuatu Government 2006 : 37), the document focuses on educational
issues, thereby falling short of addressing issues of sustainability in relation to land
leases or conservation of identified heritage sites whose development would fit very
well with the strengthening of Vanuatu's kastom ekonomi 5 (Regenvanu 2009 ) and
its recognition and promotion as a basis for sustainability. This was a goal put
forward in the Vanuatu National Self Reliance Strategy 2020 (Malvatumauri
National Council of Chiefs 2005 ). Instead, the CRMD development and protection
have been left out of the country's alternative development strategies and, by lack
of other institutional support, put into the hands of the World Heritage and Tourism
Committee (WHTC) with support from a group of international advisors.
To mitigate the environmental, social and economic impact of land leasing in the
CRMD area, the WHTC has begun to develop innovative strategies for protection
and preservation, drawing upon the traditional practices that have conserved the
heritage area for centuries. In 2008, the Lelema Council of Chiefs, together with
SHEFA Province and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, signed a Memo-
randum of Understanding in recognition of the CRMD Buffer Zone Management
Plan, a document complementing the broader Plan of Management for CRMD. The
primary aim of the Buffer Zone Plan is to specify a series of development conditions
on land leased within the Buffer Zone that would be implemented by the chiefs, with
support from Provincial and National Governments (Cartling, 2008, Chief Roi Mata's
domain buffer zone management plan, unpublished document), with a view to pre-
serving cultural heritage.
The broader Plan of Management for CRMD has been relatively successful in
drawing on traditional conservation measures - such as the taboo on the use of
Artok Island or Mangaas in place since about 1600 AD, the seasonal taboos on reef
use, occasional taboos on harvesting tree crops, and the general respect shown to
traditional sacred sites - to protect the immediate area associated with the life and
death of Chief Roi Mata (i.e. the 'World Heritage property'). The Buffer Zone
Management Plan has, however, proved much more difficult to implement or
enforce (Kalotiti et al. 2009 ). This difficulty was due initially to the short period of
time allowed for consultations with community members, the limited authority of
the WHTC to make decisions in relation to the buffer zone, and the Buffer Zone
Management Plan not being a legally enforceable document. As a result, there was
5 Kastom ekonomi is a form of traditional or subsistence economy. Regenvanu explains that this is
“the way in which our indigenous Pacific societies are organised to look after the concerns and
resources of their members, in counterpoint to the way the “'capitalist' or 'cash' economy organises
itself to look after the concerns and resources of its members” (Regenvanu 2009 : 1).