22 July 2011 -

Jamaica's Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, is embracing a tourism plan for the island that offers several distinct, focused tourism packages, such as sports tourism and faith-based tourism. But toursim officials like Bartlett are being criticized for pushing this approach, as opposed to a more holistic marketing strategy.
Dr. Janice Lindsay, a world heritage scholar, said she thinks marketing the culture of Jamaica as a whole, rather than breaking down its tourist-attracting potential into specific areas of interest, would be a better approach. She says Jamaica should draw tourists' attention to the overall cultural heritage of the island. She argues that the fragmented approach to tourism is not only unnecessary - especially because Jamaican culture in general holds a great deal of appeal worldwide - but more expensive.

See the original article, on jamaicaobserver.com's news website, here.

U.S. to propose Poverty Point, Frank Lloyd Wright buildings for World Heritage nomination

14 July 2011 -

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that the U.S. will propose Poverty Point and eleven buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as the next nominations to the World Heritage List.
The nominations will be submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee, the body that makes the final decisions on World Heritage nominations, in 2013. If approved, the sites will be inscribed to the World Heritage list in 2014.
Poverty Point is a prehistoric site in northeastern Louisiana comprising a network of earthwork constructions. Built between 3,100 and 3,700 years ago, it is among the largest permanent hunter-gatherer settlements in the world.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is widely considered one of the most influential architects of all time. Of the 400 completed buildings he designed, 11 from across the country have been selected as superb representations of Wright's vision of an "organic architecture", a notion that has had a profound impact on the craft.
The next step in nominating these two sites will be for the Department of the Interior to collaborate with a Federal Interagency Panel on World Heritage to finalize the decision. The first drafts of the nominations should be completed by next spring.

The information from this post was taken from a press release by the National Park Service's Office of Communications, posted on the InsideNPS website for NPS employees.

Shell to drill near new World Heritage natural site of Ningaloo

8 July 2011 -

The Australian government has approved Shell's proposal to perform exploratory drilling operations, primarily for gas, 30 miles from the Ningaloo marine park. The Ningaloo Coast was inscribed to the World Heritage list at the 35th World Heritage Committee session held last month in Paris.
Australian conservation groups say a mishap in drilling operations, such as a spill, would pose a tremendous threat to the reef systems within the park.
The site is home to many rare and endangered species of wildlife and is famous for its population of whale sharks, the world's largest species of fish.
The Australian government is not requesting any further environmental assessment from Shell.

See the original article from guardian.co.uk here.

Tanzania to mine uranium in Selous Game Reserve

1 July 2011 -

The Tanzanian government has approved plans to mine uranium within the frontiers of Selous Game Reserve, a World Heritage Site in the south of the country.
Ezekiel Maige, Tanzania's natural resources minister and tourism minister, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation that the mining project will affect only 0.69% of the land within the park.
The mining project is expected to bring in about $200 million each year, with around $5 million going to the Tanzanian government. Some of this money will go toward managing the park, which costs around $490,000 each year, Maige said.
Mining operations within Selous Game Reserve should generate somewhere around 1,600 jobs.
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee has requested that Tanzania performs environmental assessments of the mining before it gives its approval.
Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest faunal reserves in the world. Some species, such as the African Wild Dog and the Cape buffalo, are found in greater numbers within this reserve than in any other African game reserve or park.

See the original article at the BBC News: Africa page here.