11 Natural World Heritage Sites Added to UN's List
12/6/99
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Title: U.N. Lists 11 World Heritage Natural Sites
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 6, 1999
MARRAKECH, Morocco, December 6, 1999 (ENS) - Eleven new natural sites
were designated for World Heritage protection last week by the United
Nations.
The World Heritage Committee of the U.N. 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.