ABSTRACT
The waters of the Indian Ocean are perhaps the last venue one would expect urban heritage and management issues to be prevalent. Comprising the independent nations of the Maldives, Mauritius, Comoros, and Seychelles as well as the French external Departments of Mayotte and Réunion, they are, in the majority, parts of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) communities now recognized by UNESCO. These six communities host significant and rapidly burgeoning urban centres rich in multi-cultural issues, various colonial and post-independence legacies, culturally diverse governance structures, and natural values-influenced geo-heritage themes. But they are also facing immediate and major issues of climate change, urbanization, tourism, infrastructural deterioration and retrofitting, and ill-funded internal governance policies that are challenging their respective urban heritage. This chapter surveys this physical, economic and governance landscape, including existing cultural heritage recognitions, the conservation and management dilemmas, and challenges confronting the urban landscapes of each nation and Department, respectively. The chapter offers a collective voice from a little heard of sector of the Asia-Pacific region that explains the challenges these communities are confronting in urban heritage identification, assessment, conservation and management.
