What we are, is what we leave behind

South Africa boasts eight World Heritage Sites, each providing the beholder with an array of fascinating marvels, exquisite natural beauty or cultural inspiration that merit preservation for future generations.

What makes the concept of world heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage Sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory in which they are located.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has an international World Heritage Programme to preserve exceptional areas of importance to humanity. A Unesco World Heritage Site is chosen for its cultural significance or natural beauty and could be a coral reef, mountain range, wetland, desert, architectural development, city or even a cultivated landscape. Some of the most famous World Heritage Sites are the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, the Pyramids of Giza, the Statue of Liberty, the Tower of London, India’s Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania.

South Africa’s precious heritage jewels are:

• Cultural sites: Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs (1999); Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (2003); Robben Island (1999); and Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape (2007).

• The mixed (both natural and cultural) site, UKhahlamba/Drakensberg Park (2000).

• Natural sites: Cape Floral Region Protected Areas (2004); Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park (1999); and Vredefort Dome (2005).

Every year, the World Heritage Committee considers requests for the inscription of new sites onto the Unesco World Heritage List. This year saw its 34th session meeting in Brazil.

It was chaired by João Luíz Ferreira, Brazilian Minister of Culture and president of the World Heritage Committee.

Three of the countries that have requested for inscription – Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tajikistan – have no properties inscribed on the World Heritage List to date.

Thirty-two new properties in total were submitted for inscription on the World Heritage List this year: six natural, 24 cultural and two mixed properties, including four transnational nominations. In addition, nine extensions to properties already listed have been proposed.

The latest Unesco meeting looked for unique attractions from all over the world except Europe, where many of the previously marked heritage sites are located.

The Committee has also reviewed the state of conservation of the 31 World Heritage properties inscribed on the List of World Heritage which are now in danger, and it may decide to add to that list new properties, the preservation of which requires special attention. The “In Danger List” features sites that are threatened by a variety of problems such as pollution, urban development, poorly managed mass tourism, wars and natural disasters, which have a negative impact on the outstanding values for which the sites were inscribed on the World Heritage List.

To date, the World Heritage List recognises 890 properties of “outstanding universal value,” including 689 cultural, 176 natural and 25 mixed properties in 148 states parties.

The Convention had aimed to encourage international co-operation in order to safeguard the common heritage of humanity. With 187 states parties, it is one of the most widely ratified international legal instruments.

When signing the Convention, states parties commit to identifying sites for potential inscription and to preserving sites on the World Heritage List, as well as sites of national and regional importance, notably by providing an appropriate legal and regulatory framework.

The World Heritage Committee, responsible for the implementation of the 1972 Convention, comprises representatives of 21 countries, elected by the states parties for up to six years.

Each year, the Committee adds new sites to the List. The sites are proposed by the states parties. Applications are then reviewed by two advisory bodies: cultural sites by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, and natural sites by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which inform the Committee of their recommendations.

The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Heritage provides expert advice on conservation and training in restoration techniques.

The World Heritage Committee further examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed sites and asks states parties to take appropriate conservation and preservation measures when necessary.

The Committee supervises the disbursement of over $4 million annually from the World Heritage Fund, aimed, among other purposes, at emergency action, training of experts and encouraging technical co-operation.

Unesco’s World Heritage Centre is the Secretariat of the World Heritage Committee.

Concluding its annual meeting, it added 21 new World Heritage Sites to the list, as well as expanding seven existing World Heritage Sites and dubbed the nature heritage site Ngorongoro in Tanzania also a cultural site. Of the 21 new inscriptions, 15 were in the cultural category, five natural and one mixed property.

New sites range from convict sites in Australia to the site where the atomic bomb was tested on Bikini Atoll to prehistoric caves in Mexico.

The 2010 listings include single sites in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, the United States and Vietnam, plus two sites each in China, France, Iran and Mexico.

In Europe, sites now include Amsterdam’s 17th-century Canal Ring area, where boats once transported the goods that made the Dutch city a trade hub; and the episcopal city of Albi in France, known for its cathedral and buildings dating to the Middle Ages.

Sites were expanded in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Norway, the Moldavia region, Portugal and Italy.

The Pirin National Park in southwest Bulgaria is spread over 27 000 hectares in the Pirin Mountains and comprises limestone landscapes with glacial lakes, waterfalls, caves and mostly coniferous forests. The extension covers an area of some 40 000ha in the same mountains, and is mostly in high mountain territory that is more than 2 000m in altitude.

Monte San Giorgio in Italy and Switzerland is a pyramid-shaped, wooded mountain rising to an altitude of nearly 1 100m above sea level and is regarded as the best fossil record of marine life from the Triassic period, which took place more than 200 million years ago.

Four sites were declared as being “in danger”: Georgia’s Bagrati Cathedral and Gelati Monastery, Madagascar’s Atsinanana rainforest, Uganda’s tombs of Buganda kings, and the Everglades National Park in the United States.

Only nine of the 32 sites considered were turned down, Unesco spokesperson Sue Williams said.

The Committee added Siega Verde, Spain to the Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Cõa Valley in neighbouring Portugal. They are home to rock carvings from the Upper Palaeolithic era of 22 000–10 000 BC.

The 645 engravings in Siega Verde were made on a cliff, the result of erosion by the river and are mostly figurative, representing animals.

Unesco said the sites of the Côa Valley and Siega Verde represent the most remarkable open-air ensemble of Palaeolithic art on the
Iberian Peninsula. Rounding out the list of World Heritage sites with new additions are mining areas in Germany and Norway.

A mining water management system was added to the Mines of Rammelsberg, in the historic town of Goslar in Germany. The system was developed over a period of some 800 years to assist in extracting ore to produce non-ferrous metals. Its construction was started by Cistercian monks in the Middle Ages before being developed on a vast scale from the end of the 16th century until the 19th century.

There are now 911 cultural and nature World Heritage Sites in 151 countries. The designation is highly sought after and seen as a drawcard for tourism.

Tim Wielding (Source: UNESCOPRESS)