World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, 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 ^* (similar to the United Nation's Security Council).

The programme aims to catalogue, name, and preserve 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, 182 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

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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 Turkey is classified as belonging to the Asia-Pacific zone; Russia as part of Europe and North America, 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:

Zone	Natural	Cultural	Mixed	Total
Africa	32	36	2	70
Arab States	4	57	1	62
Asia-Pacific	43	121	11	175
Europe & North America	49	351	7	407
Latin America & Caribbean	34	79	3	116

Lists of World Heritage Sites

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	June 27-July 01	Paris
2	1978	September 05-08	Washington, D.C.
3	1979	October 22-26	Cairo & Luxor
4	1980	September 01-05	Paris
5	1981	October 26-30	Sydney
6	1982	December 13-17	Paris
7	1983	December 05-09	Florence
8	1984	October 29-November 02	Buenos Aires
9	1985	December 02-06	Paris
10	1986	November 24-28	Paris
11	1987	December 07-11	Paris
12	1988	December 05-09	Brasilia
13	1989	December 11-15	Paris
14	1990	December 07-12	Banff
15	1991	December 09-13	Carthage
16	1992	December 07-14	Santa Fe
17	1993	December 06-11	Cartagena
18	1994	December 12-17	Phuket
19	1995	December 04-09	Berlin
20	1996	December 02-07	Mérida
21	1997	December 01-06	Naples
22	1998	November 30-December 05	Kyoto
23	1999	November 29-December 04	Marrakesh
24	2000	November 27-December 02	Cairns
25	2001	December 11-16	Helsinki
26	2002	June 24-29	Budapest
27	2003	June 30-July 05	Paris
28	2004	June 28-July 07	Suzhou
29	2005	July 10-17	Durban
30	2006	July 08-16	Vilnius
31	2007	TBD	Christchurch

External links

UNESCO World Heritage Sites — Official website
List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites — Official website
World Heritage Site — A personal travel guide to the entries on the World Heritage List
WHTour — The World Heritage List in panographies and virtual tours
VRheritage.org — Documentation of World Heritage Sites
Worldheritage-Forum — Weblog and Information on World Heritage Issues
USA-UN Man and Biosphere & World Heritage Sites
U.S. Wary of World-Heritage Status, Travel Editor Says
UNESCO World Heritage List — Complete list with links and map of all sites
whc.kmz — The World Heritage List in Google Earth (en français)
Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage at Law-Ref.org — Fully indexed and crosslinked with other documents
Organization of World Heritage Cities — Dealing with urban sites only

World Heritage Sites

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