World Heritage Site

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Environment

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State Parties (countries) which are elected by the General Assembly of States Parties for a fixed term. (This is similar to the United Nations Security Council.)

The programme aims to catalogue, name, and conserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind. Under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. Since then, over 180 State Parties have ratified the convention.

As of 2006, a total of 830 sites are listed: 644 cultural, 162 natural, and 24 mixed properties, in 138 States Parties. UNESCO references each World Heritage Site with a unique identification number; but new inscriptions often include previous sites now listed as part of larger descriptions. As a result, the numbering system currently ends above 1200, even though there are fewer on the actual list.

Each World Heritage Site is the property of the country on whose territory the site is located, but it is considered in the interest of the international community to preserve each site for future generations of humankind. The protection and conservation of these sites are a concern of all the World Heritage countries.

History

Site #86: Memphis and its Necropolis, including the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt).

Site #114: Persepolis (Iran).

Site #307: The Statue of Liberty (United States).

Site #438: The Great Wall of 10,000 Li (China).

Site #444: The Ksar of Aït Benhaddou (Morocco).

Site #524: The Great Stupa at Sanchi (India).

Site #540: Historic Centre of St. Petersburg and its suburbs (Russia).

Site #541: Vilnius Historic Centre (Lithuania).

Site #708: Historical Monuments of Mtskheta, including the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (Georgia).

Site #772: The Banaue Rice Terraces in the mountains of Ifugao (Philippines).

Site #776: The Shinto Itsukushima Shrine of Miyajima, Hiroshima (Japan).

Site #917: The Greater Blue Mountains Area, including the Blue Mountains National Park (Australia).

Site #936: The Cueva de las Manos in a remote region of Patagonia (Argentina).

Site #946: Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Site #960: Geghard Monastery (Armenia).

Pre-convention

In 1959, the government of Egypt decided to build the Aswan High Dam, an event that would flood a valley containing treasures of ancient civilization such as the Abu Simbel temples. UNESCO then launched a worldwide safeguarding campaign, despite appeals from the governments of Egypt and Sudan. The Abu Simbel and Philae temples were taken apart, moved to a higher location, and put back together piece-by-piece.

The cost of the project was approximately US $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 different countries. It was widely regarded as a total success, and led to other safeguarding campaigns (saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Moenjodaro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia). UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a draft convention to protect the common cultural heritage of humankind.

Convention and background

The United States initiated the idea of combining cultural conservation with nature conservation. A White House conference in 1965 called for a World Heritage Trust to preserve "the world's superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry." The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, and they were presented in 1972 to the United Nations conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden.

A single text was ultimately agreed on by all parties involved, and the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.

Nominating process

A country must first take an inventory of all its significant cultural and natural properties. This is called the Tentative List, and is important because a country may not nominate properties that have not already been included on the Tentative List. Next, it can select a property off this list to make into a Nomination File. The World Heritage Centre offers advice and help in preparing this file, which needs to be as comprehensive as possible.

At this point, the file is independently evaluated by two organizations: the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union. These bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. The Committee meets once per year to determine whether or not to inscribe each nominated property on the World Heritage List, and sometimes defers the decision to request more information from the States Parties. There are ten selection criteria that a site must meet to be included on the list.

Selection criteria

Until the end of 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so that there is only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of "outstanding universal value" and meet at least one of the ten criteria.

Cultural criteria

• I. "to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius";
• II. "to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design";
• III. "to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared";
• IV. "to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history";
• V. "to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change";
• VI. "to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria)";

Natural criteria

• VII. "to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance";
• VIII. "to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features";
• IX. "to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals";
• X. "to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation."

Statistics

There are currently 830 World Heritage Sites located in 138 State Parties. Of these, 644 are cultural, 162 are natural and 24 are mixed properties. Further site classification includes the classification of the State Parties among five geographic zones: Africa, Arab States (composed of northern Africa and the Middle East), Asia-Pacific (includes Australia and Oceania), Europe and North America (specifically, USA and Canada), and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Note that Russia is classified as belonging to the Europe and North America zone, together with Cyprus and the Caucasus States.

The UNESCO geographic zones also give greater emphasis on administrative, rather than geographic associations. Hence, Gough Island, located in the South Atlantic, is part of the Europe & North America region since it was the United Kingdom which nominated the site.

For a detailed statistics of sites according to State Party, refer to this article.

The table below includes a breakdown of the sites according to these zones and their classification:

World Heritage Committee Session

The World Heritage Committee meets several times a year to discuss measures on the management of existing World Heritage Sites, and accept the nominations from interested countries. A session, known as the World Heritage Committee Session, takes place annually where sites are officially inscribed on the World Heritage List, after presentations made by the IUCN and/or ICOMOS, and deliberations made among the State Parties.

The annual session takes place in various cities all over the world. With the exception of those held in Paris (France), where the UNESCO headquarter office is located, only State Parties who are members of the World Heritage Committee have the right to host a future Session, pending approval by the Committee, as well as provided that the concerned State Party's term will not expire before it hosts the Session.

Session	Year	Date	Host City	State Party
1	1977	27 June - 1 July	Paris	France
2	1978	5 September - 8 September	Washington, D.C.	United States
3	1979	22 October - 26 October	Cairo & Luxor	Egypt
4	1980	1 September - 5 September	Paris	France
5	1981	26 October - 30 October	Sydney	Australia
6	1982	13 December - 17 December	Paris	France
7	1983	5 December - 9 December	Florence	Italy
8	1984	29 October - 2 November	Buenos Aires	Argentina
9	1985	2 December - 6 December	Paris	France
10	1986	24 November - 28 November	Paris	France
11	1987	7 December - 11 December	Paris	France
12	1988	5 December - 9 December	Brasilia	Brazil
13	1989	11 December - 15 December	Paris	France
14	1990	7 December - 12 December	Banff	Canada
15	1991	9 December - 13 December	Carthage	Tunisia
16	1992	7 December - 14 December	Santa Fe	United States
17	1993	6 December - 11 December	Cartagena	Colombia
18	1994	12 December - 17 December	Phuket	Thailand
19	1995	4 December - 9 December	Berlin	Germany
20	1996	2 December - 7 December	Mérida	Mexico
21	1997	1 December - 6 December	Naples	Italy
22	1998	30 November - 5 December	Kyoto	Japan
23	1999	29 November - 4 December	Marrakesh	Morocco
24	2000	27 November - 2 December	Cairns	Australia
25	2001	11 December - 16 December	Helsinki	Finland
26	2002	24 June - 29 June	Budapest	Hungary
27	2003	30 June - 5 July	Paris	France
28	2004	28 June - 7 July	Suzhou	China
29	2005	10 July - 17 July	Durban	South Africa
30	2006	8 July - 16 July	Vilnius	Lithuania
31	2007	23 June - 1 July	Christchurch	New Zealand