UN Adds 11 Natural Areas to World Heritage List
12/3/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: UN Lists 11 New Outstanding Natural Sites
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 3, 1999
MARRAKECH, Morocco, December 3, 1999 (ENS) - Eleven new natural sites
were designated for World Heritage Environment protection this week
by the United Nations.
The World Heritage Committee of the UN Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) meeting this week in Marrakech,
inscribed a total of 48 new cultural and natural sites in 33
countries on the World Heritage List.
To win status as a natural heritage site an area must have
outstanding physical, biological and geological formations, habitats
of threatened species of animals and plants and areas with
scientific, conservation or aesthetic value, according to a 1972
international treaty, the Convention concerning the Protection of the
World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Opening the UNESCO meeting, newly appointed UNESCO Director-General
Koichiro Matsuura, former president of the World Heritage Committee,
stressed that "conservation is not an end in itself. The heritage we
aim to protect must make sense for contemporary society and give it
sense. It is only on this condition that it can be preserved for
future generations."
He pledged, as UNESCO's director-general, to strengthen the World
Heritage Centre.
Matsuura evoked the need for preventive action and education for
World Heritage conservation and an increase in public awareness.
"Without the understanding and support of the public at large,
without the respect and daily care by the local communities, which
are the true custodians of World Heritage sites, no amount of funds
or army of experts will suffice to protect these sites," he said.
The 11 new natural sites are:
* Argentina: Pennsula Vald,s
* Brazil: (2 sites) Brazilian Discovery Coast and the
Atlantic Forests of the South East
* Canada: Miguasha Park
* Costa Rica: Area de Conservaci›n Guanacaste
* Cuba: Desembarco del Granma National Park
* Indonesia: Lorentz National Park
* Philippines: Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
National Park
* Portugal: Laurisilva of Madeira
* Russian Federation: The Western Caucasus
* South Africa: Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park
Two mixed sites, displaying both cultural and natural values - Mount
Wuyi in China and the island of Ibiza in Spain were also designated.
The World Heritage List now has 630 sites of "outstanding universal
value" in 118 countries. Sites in South Africa, Nigeria, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, and Turkmenistan are on the List for the first time.
Notable among the new cultural sites is South Africa's Robben Island
a prison island where former South African president Nelson Mandela
spent 27 years in jail.
The inscription of South Africa's Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park on
the World Heritage List is marks the country's first natural World
Heritage Site. "We are absolutely thrilled and delighted with the
announcement," said Dr. Hans Grobler, deputy chief executive of the
KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service. "There are the many South
Africans and people from other countries who have a deep love of the
Greater St Lucia Wetland Park and who have supported us in our
efforts to ensure that the Park and its natural systems are protected
for all time," he said.
KwaZulu-Natal Minister of Agriculture and Environment Affairs Narend
Singh said the listing would provide great impetus for tourism to
KwaZulu-Natal as a whole and that the province stands to benefit from
the job creation opportunities from eco-tourism development in the St
Lucia region.
Also in Marrakech, the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO unanimously
adopted a report concluding that Mitsubishi's plan to build the
world's largest salt factory at Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California
Sur, Mexico, "could threaten the conditions of integrity" of the
World Heritage site there. A team of international and Mexican
experts, who visited the site of the proposed 116 square kilometer
project in August, compiled the report.
"The World Heritage Committee's conclusions today confirm our fears
about the Mitsubishi project," said Patricia Martinez of Pro Esteros,
Baja California's largest environmental group. "This project would
destroy one of our most valuable natural areas and poison our
fisheries, the greatest economic resource that we have."