One in ten natural World Heritage Sites in Danger 23 June 2012 |
News story UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting,
which starts in St Petersburg on Sunday, will see a total of 36
new sites considered for inscription as natural and cultural
sites, and a series of monitoring reports on the sites already
listed. But if IUCN’s recommendations to add four World Heritage
sites to the Danger List are accepted, 21 out of the 211 –one in
ten- natural World Heritage Sites will be officially “in
danger.” “World Heritage Sites are icons of global conservation,
but even these places are coming under increasing pressures,”
says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme.
“The Convention is 40 this year, and it will need to do much
more to protect its listed sites in the next ten years, and
especially those that are in Danger, if the gold standard of
World Heritage listing is to be retained. This fortieth
anniversary year of the Convention is celebrating communities,
and we consider greater benefit