A
UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a
forest,
mountain,
lake,
desert,
monument,
building,
complex, or
city) that is on the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the
UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21
state parties which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-
year term.
A World Heritage Site is a place of either cultural or physical significance.
The program catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding
cultural or
natural importance to the common heritage of
humanity. 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
November 16,
1972. Since then, 186 state parties have ratified the convention.
, 890 sites are listed: 689 cultural, 176 natural, and 25 mixed properties, in 148 states.
[, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.][, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.] Italy is home to the greatest number of World Heritage Sites to date with 44 sites inscribed on the list. UNESCO references each World Heritage Site with an identification number; but new inscriptions often include previous sites now listed as part of larger descriptions. As a result, the identification numbers exceed 1200 even though there are fewer on the list.
Each World Heritage Site is the property of the state on whose territory the site is located, but it is considered in the interest of the international community to preserve each site.
150px|thumb|Site #174: Historic center of [[Florence (
Italy).]]
150px|thumb|Site #835: Medieval Town of [[Toruń (
Poland).]]
The World Heritage emblem, designed by Belgian artist Michel Olyff, was adopted as the official emblem of the World Heritage Convention in 1978. The World Heritage emblem represents the interdependence of the world’s natural and cultural diversity. It is used to identify properties protected by the World Heritage Convention and inscribed on the official World Heritage List, and represents the universal values for which the Convention stands. While the central square symbolizes the results of human skill and inspiration, the circle celebrates the gifts of nature. The emblem is round, like the world, a symbol of global protection for the heritage of all humankind. The symbol is surrounded with words "world heritage" in 3 languages, English, French and Spanish.
History
Pre-convention
In 1954, the
government of Egypt decided to build the
Aswan Dam (Aswan High Dam), an event that would
flood a
valley containing
treasures of
ancient Egypt such as the
Abu Simbel temples. UNESCO then launched a worldwide safeguarding campaign. 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
US$80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries. The project was regarded as a success, and led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving
Venice and its
lagoon in
Italy, the ruins of
Mohenjo-daro 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 humanity.
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.
A single text was agreed on by all parties, 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 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 from this list to place into a Nomination File. The World Heritage Centre offers advice and help in preparing this file.
At this point, the file is evaluated by 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 country who nominated the site. There are ten selection criteria - a site must meet at least one of them 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";
- 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";
- X. "to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-site 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 890 World Heritage Sites located in 148 countries (state parties). Of these, 689 are cultural, 176 are natural and 25 are mixed properties. The
World Heritage Committee has divided the countries into five geographic zones:
Africa,
Arab States (composed of
North Africa and the
Middle East),
Asia-Pacific (includes
Australia and
Oceania),
Europe &
North America, and
Latin America & the
Caribbean.
Russia and the
Caucasus states are classified as European, while
Mexico is classified as belonging to the Latin America & Caribbean zone. 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 because the government of the
United Kingdom nominated the site.
The table below includes a breakdown of the sites according to these zones and their classification:
Lists of World Heritage Sites
