Malaysian Unesco World Heritage site has oldest relics of human settlement outside Africa but is largely unknown and severely neglected – why?

via South China Morning Post, 04 September 2022: While a World Heritage listing usually means an increase in tourism and benefits for the local economy, this has not materialised for the Lenggong Valley. The 2019 article in The Star about the World Heritage listing in danger is indexed here.

It is 10 years since the town in Perak state – or, more accurately, the valley it sits in – was inscribed on the World Heritage list by Unesco thanks to its archaeological sites. But it’s been a decade of neglect and the bloom of the Lenggong Valley into a popular tourist destination remains a pipe dream.

“Foreigners are surprised to see that a Unesco site could be so underdeveloped,” says Ng Hock Sen, the owner of the four-storey Soon Lee Hotel, the tallest building in his one-horse tropical hometown.

I have visited many times since, but despite the continued efforts of Ng and others, the Lenggong Valley has yet to take advantage of its Unesco inscription – which may soon be revoked, according to a December 2019 article in Malaysian newspaper The Star, because of negligence and the deplorable condition of the sites.

“Nothing much has changed since the listing,” says Adrian Abu Bakar, who moved to Lenggong from Kuala Lumpur a few years ago to try to develop agritourism in the valley.

“The people in charge launch initiatives that are disconnected from the actual needs on the ground,” he says, giving a couple of examples: kiosks meant for the sale of souvenirs and local goods have been built throughout the Lenggong Valley but have remained empty for years; and hundreds of bus stops have been erected for a service that has never been launched.

Source: Malaysian Unesco World Heritage site has oldest relics of human settlement outside Africa but is largely unknown and severely neglected – why? | South China Morning Post