What Future for the World Heritage Convention?

As the World Heritage Convention approaches its 40th anniversary, how can we ensure that it delivers maximum conservation results? This is the subject of the second World Conservation Debate and we'd like to hear your views.

Read the whole article, here.

Federal, local officials to decide on paving road to Chaco Canyon

7 June 2011 -
A fight over the future of one of New Mexico's greatest historic treasures could soon find a resolution when local county officials and the federal government finally answer a nearly seven year-old question: Should the road to Chaco Canyon be paved?

See the full article, by Bobby Magill, on the New West Travel & Outdoors website here.

ICOMOS recommends against Le Corbusier buildings' World Heritage nomination

3 June 2011 -
A consultant has recommended to UNESCO that they reject a proposal to include 19 buildings designed by French architect Le Corbusier on their list of world heritage sites.
The buildings up for recognition are located in 6 countries, and includes the National Museum of Western Art in Japan.
The International Council Of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) says its recommendation to reject the Le Corbusiers is based on their opinion that they fail to "demonstrate remarkable universal significance of the modern architectural movement," according to the Daily Yomiyuri Online.

See the original article on planetizen.com here.

UNESCO receives 42 nominations to join World Heritage List

5 May 2011 –
More than 40 natural or cultural sites – including five from countries never represented before – have been nominated for inscription this year on the World Heritage List run by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Read the whole article here.

Reflect and conserve

By Ashley Chappo, Columnist on April 29, 2011 (University of Virginia)

COLLEGE years pass us by quickly. No one knows this better than the graduating Class of 2011. Therefore, as we enjoy our remaining days here, we should take time to reflect on the qualities that make the University truly distinct.

One is the University’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Our University, along with Jefferson’s Monticello, shares a place among the world’s most remarkable and valuable treasures, including the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon.

In the United States, there are 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 17 of which are national parks. The University is the only college in the nation that enjoys the rare honor of World Heritage status. It became a World Heritage site in 1987 thanks to the efforts of the National Park Service.

As University students, we are privileged to live within the shadow of history. Every day for four years, we are able to walk beneath the marble columns of one of our nation’s most important cultural landmarks. Its architectural and educational designs embody the ideals of the American republic and emphasize a spirit of democracy, only achievable by one of the world’s principal constitutional experimenters.

Jefferson’s Academical Village was a revolutionary educational plan — its 10 pavilions “serve as an encyclopaedia of classical and neoclassical architectural designs” and its Rotunda stands as a “half-scale copy of the Pantheon in Rome.” United beneath the colonnades, we all learn within one of our nation’s most beautiful and enthralling landmarks.

As residents of Charlottesville and University students, we are subjects to an extraordinary heritage. We owe our thanks to those who preserve and maintain this national legacy. Before we leave the University, we should take advantage of the history around us and the cultural heritage to which we are heirs. We should learn what our status as a “World Heritage site” means, and why it is important.

The United States always has stood at the front of the conservation and preservation movements. Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872, sparking a national park idea that would forever change the world. The idea of a nationally administered public land was a new concept; it had significant implications for the modern conservation movement. A national park was at its core democratic — all individuals of a nation would share in the collective treasures of their environment.

Not surprisingly, a movement also emerged to establish the national park idea at an international level. In 1965, the idea of a “World Heritage Trust” was put forward during a White House Conference. The purpose of this trust would be to look after and preserve “the world’s superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry.”

In 1972, the World Heritage Convention — also known as the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage — was adopted by UNESCO. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In accordance with the World Heritage Convention, preservation and conservation became not only national, but international interests. The Convention maintained a two part goal: the conservation of nature and the preservation of culture.

Of the 911 World Heritage sites, 704 are designated as cultural, 180 as natural and 27 as mixed properties. All potential new World Heritage sites are recommended by member nations of the World Heritage Convention. Each member state may voluntarily nominate its own national sites to be selected based on a strict set of criteria.

In Charlottesville, we are lucky to live close to two other historic sites, which currently sit on the Tentative List to be considered for UNESCO World Heritage site status — Jefferson’s Poplar Forest and the Virginia State Capitol Building in Richmond. Along with our own university and Jefferson’s Monticello, these sites encompass our most precious cultural heritage.

To be accepted onto the World Heritage List, a site must be of “outstanding universal value” and “meet at least one out of ten selection criteria.” All nominations of new American sites are overseen by the Secretary of the Interior. To be considered, a site already must be designated a federal property, a national historic landmark or a national natural landmark. Nominations then are assessed by a smaller, elected body of 21 member nations, known as the World Heritage Committee. The committee selects new World Heritage Sites and through the World Heritage Fund provides assistance, guidance and training to member nations.

Once a new site is designated, direct authority remains in the hands of the member nation to continue to protect and preserve the property. Most sites are maintained either by the national, state or local government, or by a tribal or private authority. In the United States, the majority of our World Heritage Sites are managed and maintained by the National Park Service.

Today, the University maintains a deep connection with the National Park Service and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. We should understand this connection — it can teach us a lot about the importance of conservation and preservation in the modern age. We are truly lucky to attend the University, and we must remember that we gain our education not only in the classroom, but also in our presence among the colonnades.

Ashley Chappo’s column usually appeared Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at a.chappo@cavalierdaily.com.

Aboriginal leaders quit World Heritage

Two Aboriginal leaders have walked away from an effort to establish a World Heritage area in Cape York, labelling it a rubber stamping process for the Bligh government's green agenda.

Read more, here.

Oil Spill has Reached Inaccessible Island, a World Heritage Site

ABOARD PRINCE ALBERT II: Expedition staff environmental scientist, Claudia Holgate received an email from Tristan da Cunha Department of Conservation director, Trevor Glass indicating that oil from the wrecked freighter “Oliva” had now reached Inaccessible Island, a World Heritage Site. To read the whole article, click here.

The Economist has Tea with Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO

Watch the YouTube video here.

UNESCO asks Libya, allied forces to respect ancient cultural sites

New York - Libya and allied forces implementing the no-fly zone must respect Libya's rich cultural sites, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said Wednesday.
UNESCO has inscribed five of Libya's famous sites on its World Heritage List and it urged the forces to avoid those areas as well as other historical and cultural sites.

See more.

The United Kingdom nominates 11 sites for UNESCO World Heritage status

The Forth bridge, the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic where Napoleon died in 1821, and the Lake District are among 11 places the government will nominate today as worthy of becoming world heritage sites to be ranked alongside the Pyramids and Stonehenge.

The government will also make a third attempt to have the corner of Kent where Charles Darwin wrote the book that changed the history of science recognised as a world treasure.

John Penrose, the tourism and heritage minister, said: "Few places in the world can match the wealth of wonderful heritage we have available in the UK. The 11 places that make up the new 'UK tentative list' are fantastic examples of our cultural and natural heritage, and I believe they have every chance of joining famous names like the Sydney Opera House and the Canadian Rockies to become world heritage sites."

Read the whole article, here.

Protection of Flathead region needed

Now that the trans-boundary conference calls and Washington, D.C., hand-shaking sessions are over, a lot remains to finish in protecting the Flathead River between British Columbia and Montana.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer's Valentine's Day announcement that two conservation groups were providing $9.4 million to buy out mining claims on the Canadian side of the Flathead didn't include all the details of the deal. One significant omission was that while the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy is raising its half of the money through private donations, the Nature Conservancy of Canada is dipping into a $225 million Canadian government fund for its contribution.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

WB offers to fund alternative Serengeti road

A leading US environmental expert has warned that Tanzania’s resolve to build the northern road through the Serengeti National Park (Senapa) could deny the country substantial foreign aid.
The warning comes against the backdrop of plans by the government to construct a road through Senapa, which local and international conservationists say could spell doom for wildlife conservation efforts in Tanzania. In a letter to President Jakaya Kikwete dated March 1, 2011, the expert with a vast experience on the Serengeti, Prof John S.Adams, says the World Bank has offered to help finance the alternate southern route in order to help preserve Senapa, the world heritage site from losing its outstanding universal value.

To read more, click here.

UN world heritage agency appoints special envoy for Preah Vihear temple

11 February 2011 – The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today named Koïchiro Matsuura as Special Envoy to address the issue of Preah Vihear, a Hindu temple inscribed on the World Heritage List that has been damaged owing to recent border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand.
Mr. Matsuura, the former Director-General of UNESCO, will visit Bangkok and Phnom Penh to discuss how the site can be safeguarded.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Wind farm threatens Mont St Michel's UNESCO status

Plans to build a wind farm near the picturesque island abbey of Mont Saint Michel could threaten the UNESCO World Heritage status of one of France's most famous monuments.

Read more here.

Istanbul’s world heritage sites in neglect

When construction began on an underwater tunnel below the Bosporus strait dividing the European and Asian halves of Istanbul, workers uncovered the ancient port of Constantinople.

It was no real surprise, perhaps — Istanbul is an archaeological treasure trove, with historic sites from the Hippodrome of Byzantine times to the Ottoman era Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace.

All these architectural riches have earned Turkey’s largest city a World Heritage Site designation from the United Nations. But Monday, the city is in danger of being struck off that list.

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