Change is an intrinsic part of dynamic systems such as landscapes. However, when a landscape undergoes patrimonialization, systems of protection and regulations trigger distinctive processes that have socio-ecological and socio-economical impacts. Society and environment change. When landscapes are declared heritage, first restrictions, and later tourism development affect the relationship between the communities that inhabit them, and hence, the values of the landscapes under protection evolve. 
A comparative approach was used in order to study this problem. Two sites from mountain areas were selected as case studies: the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park in Spain, part of the transnational mixed cultural and natural heritage property on the World Heritage List Pyrenees/Mont Perdu since 1997, shared with France; the Archaeological Park of Ollantaytambo, neighbour to the Sanctuary of Machu Picchu in Peru, included in the serial and transnational property Qhapaq Ñan/Andean Road System inscribed on the List in 2014. These sites have undergone processes of patrimonialization that started at the beginning of the twentieth century. They are protected under two different models: the first focused on the conservation of nature and the second on the conservation of the past. Nevertheless, both sites have been nominated as cultural landscapes in the context of the World Heritage Convention, based on the relationship between agro-pastoral communities inhabiting the sites and their particular environments. 
In this paper, I will explore the processes of landscape changes related to the adoption of these landscapes as heritage. In these sites, these processes apparently follow opposite trends: the emergence of urbanization in the Andean mountains, represented by the village of Ollantaytambo, core of the archaeological park; and the emergence of the forest in the Pyrenees, in the villages surrounding the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park. In the first case, the population is growing and occupation of agricultural land is menacing the archaeological heritage. In the second, the population is decreasing, and the landscape of agro-pastoralism is being regained by nature. 
Using a qualitative approach based on text analysis of documents and data collected during fieldwork, through ethnographic and cartographic methods, I will trace the patrimonialization of the sites, illustrating its impact on landscape changes.