Mining relic protection in Henan Province: status quo, issues, and countermeasures

As of the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the majority of mining-related heritage sites in the World Heritage List are relics left behind by mining activities associated with key events over the course of history since Europe’s First Industrial Revolution. However, none of China’s mining relics has yet to be included in the World Heritage List. The development of mining has been an integral part of humanity. Understanding this, China treats mining relic protection very seriously, having been promoting its cause very actively to showcase the wisdom and creativity of its people in the discovery, grasping, development, and utilization of mineral resources. Against this backdrop, this study examines how China’s understanding of mining relics compares with how the rest of the world views mining relic protection. To this end, the focus is shifted to the mining relics in Henan Province, and in-depth analyses are carried out on the status quo and issues with mining relic protection in Henan Province. The research findings reveal a number of problems with Henan’s current mining relics, including insufficient legal and regulatory support, slow construction of mining parks, incomprehensive understanding of mining relic protection at the provincial level, suspended declaration of national-level mining parks, and weakening educational functions of existing mining parks. Several countermeasures have been accordingly proposed to the provincial authorities based on these findings, suggesting them to strengthen the management system and legal support for mining relic protection; establish dedicated local institutions for mining relic protection and conduct investigations on mining relics; push for the inclusion of existing mining parks as world heritage sites and enhance the protection of mining relics, as well as improve the protection of Henan’s mining relics through educational visits or similar activies that link the functions of natural history museums, primary and secondary schools, and mining parks. These countermeasures are proposed with the view to expedite the inclusion of China’s mining relics into the World Heritage List.