Heritage and Development: Lessons from Cambodia

The destruction of cultural heritage is motivated by many factors, but most often in the developing world the motivation is extreme poverty. Local people living in areas rich in cultural heritage assets are often either mute bystanders to theft or active participants, encouraged by middlemen to excavate illicitly or chip ornamentation from temples. Heritage Watch, an international heritage preservation organization, launched an initiative at the Koh Ker temple complex in Cambodia that stressed the sustainable use of heritage and education for the benefit of preservation. The lessons learned during this project have been applied in the organization's new initiative at Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia.