UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee adds 34 new sites to the World Heritage List; Here’s the list

The 44th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO wrapped up on Saturday in Fuzhou, capital of East China’s Fujian Province, with a total of 34 new sites recorded on the World Heritage List.

The current session’s inscriptions, which incorporate 29 cultural sites and five natural ones, bring the total number of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage to 1,154.

The World Heritage Committee has recorded an aggregate of 34 properties on UNESCO’s World Heritage List during its extended 44th session, as the transnational property of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Danube Limes (Western Segment) was added to the list on Friday, shutting the current year’s inscription agenda.

The recently recorded thing features component sites in Austria, Germany, and Slovakia, covering just about 600 kilometers of the entire Roman Empire’s Danube outskirts, as indicated by the UN culture body.

During its 44th session, led by China from the southeastern city of Fuzhou with online meetings, the World Heritage Committee has assessed 45 new proposals, incorporating nominations submitted in 2020 and 2021.

A total of 34 new properties – 29 cultural and five natural sites – were recorded during the current year’s session and three properties were expanded.

Among the recently added sites is “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” in Fujian, which brings the number of world heritage sites in the country to 56.

One of the new inscriptions was “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China,” the lone application from the host country during the current year’s session. The antiquated port of Quanzhou on China’s southeastern coast was offered the much-pined for the title last Sunday, bringing the total number of World Heritage Sites in the country to 56.

The Committee has supported the augmentation of the boundaries of Hubei Shennongjia, a World Heritage Site in central China’s Hubei Province recorded in 2016, including the Chongqing Wulipo National Natural Reserve as part of the natural property.

The current session additionally saw the Committee take the excellent and uncommon decision to delete “Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City” from the World Heritage List because of “the irreversible loss of attributes conveying the outstanding universal value of the property,” as per UNESCO.

The UK’s property was recorded on the World Heritage List in 2004 and on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2012 after worries about the proposed improvement of Liverpool Waters.

The Chongqing Wulipo National Nature Reserve officially became part of the Hubei Shennongjia World Heritage Site after a minor alteration to Shennongjia’s boundaries during the session.

The WHC looked into more than 200 states of conservation reports of world heritage properties, and perceived three properties, to be specific the Great Wall of China, and Tai National Park and Comoe National Park, both in Cote d’Ivoire, as the model cases of conservation and the management, said Tian Xuejun, chair of the 44th session of the WHC.

The Fuzhou Declaration was received during the session, repeating the guideline of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and calling for increasing help to developing nations, particularly to African nations and Small Island Developing States.

Tian said the session implemented UNESCO’s global strategy of Priority Africa, as two properties from Africa were recently recorded on the list.

The Committed additionally justified the expulsion of the Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the List of World Heritage in Danger for the adequate upgrades in the site’s state of conservation.

The historic site of Rosia Montana in Romania, a gold mining site tracing all the way back to the period of the Roman Empire, was inscribed at the same time on the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger forthcoming the expulsion of dangers to its integrity presented by conceivable mining activities.

The annual session, deferred from last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been stretched out to 15 days this year, running from July 16 to 31. A closing ceremony will be held in Fuzhou and live-streamed to the overall population on Saturday night after the daily meetings planned for the final day conclude.

With the current year’s 34 new inscriptions, the total number of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List comes to 1154.

The 45th session of the World Heritage Committee is planned to occur in Kazan, Russia from June 19 to 30, 2022, said UNESCO in a Friday release.

The WHC additionally completely perceived the accomplishments and progress made by the Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in dispensing with dangers of war and illegal poaching, and collectively consented to eliminate it from the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Tian said the session has made significant headway in the change of application procedures of properties. Beginning in September 2023, pre-evaluation will be needed to work with the communication between the committee and advisory bodies at an early stage of a nomination.

An ancient solar observatory in the middle of a desert. A decades-old railway that cuts up to two soaring mountain ranges. Striking art carved into rocks that goes back 7,000 years.

These are only some of the spectacular destinations recently engraved on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Following a few days of online deliberations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has voted to add 34 new spots to its list of World Heritage Sites.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee didn’t meet last year, so the current year’s session, based out of Fuzhou, China, and went to by virtual members from across the globe, is reviewing nominations from 2020 and 2021.

UNESCO World Heritage List criteria

UNESCO assigned its first World Heritage Sites back in 1978, with Yellowstone National Park in the United States and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador among the destinations on the inaugural round-up.

After forty years, getting delegated a UNESCO World Heritage Site is as yet a highly coveted honor for some destinations.

UNESCO says that to be remembered for the World Heritage List, sites should be of “outstanding universal value.”

The nomination process can span years, and if a landmark fails to cut one year, it very well may be analyzed again when the following UNESCO convention moves around.

Destinations need to meet one of a few criteria to make the list. Maybe they’re “a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared.” Or perhaps they contain “superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.”

On the off chance that a milestone gets UNESCO World Heritage status, the nation can get financial assistance and expert advice from UNESCO to assist with preserve the site.

UNESCO status likewise puts the destination on the map and is sometimes credited with increasing tourist numbers.

On the other side, probably the most popular UNESCO sites are additionally the destinations that have become almost synonymous with the over-tourism phenomenon in recent years – take the canalside city of Venice, which has been in danger of losing its UNESCO status because of the effect of tourists and the Peruvian archeological marvel of Machu Picchu, which battled with overpowering footfall pre-pandemic.

Incredible destinations

A small bunch of natural spots has been added to the list, including the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex in Thailand – a forest known for its endangered plants and birds.

In the interim, around two dozen cultural spots have been affirmed, including the historic limestone city of As-Salt in Jordan.

Additionally on the list is Peru’s Chankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex, an ancient site once used to follow the sun, to delineate dates over the span of a year.

In the interim the Trans-Iranian Railway, a 1,394-kilometer-long track crossing two mountain ranges is additionally now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Implicit the 1920s and ’30s, the railway explores some steep routes, as well as a staggering 174 large bridges, 186 smaller bridges, and 224 tunnels, including 11 spiral tunnels.

Saudi Arabia’s Ḥimā Cultural Area rock art additionally cut, as did the French town of Nice, while spa towns across Europe including Bath, England, and Františkovy Lázně in the Czech Republic were affirmed as an aggregate group.

Two sites in India were likewise recorded – Ramappa Temple, otherwise called Rudreshwara, is currently a UNESCO site, on account of its ‘floating’ brickwork, while the antiquated city of Dholavira was additionally perceived.

UNESCO likewise voted to remove the English city of Liverpool from its list altogether, because UNESCO was concerned about the effect of new building development. The committee additionally proposed Romania’s Roșia Montană Mining Landscape – another new option to the World Heritage List – likewise be added to its List of World Heritage in Danger. There haven’t been any sites eliminated from the endangered list this time around.

The newest World Heritage sites

2020

Turkey: Arslantepe Mound

Peru: Chankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex

Belgium/Netherlands: Colonies of Benevolence

France: Cordouan Lighthouse

India: Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple, Telangana

Germany: Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt

Italy: Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

Spain: Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of Arts and Sciences

China: Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China

Romania: Roșia Montană Mining Landscape

Brazil: Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The Great Spa Towns of Europe

Uruguay: The work of engineer Eladio Dieste: Church of Atlántida

Iran: Trans-Iranian Railway

Saudi Arabia: Ḥimā Cultural Area

Japan: Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, Northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island

Georgia: Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands

South Korea: Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats

Thailand: Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex

Austria/Germany/Slovakia: Frontiers of the Roman Empire — The Danube Limes (Western Segment)

2021

Jordan: As-Salt – The Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality

Iran: Cultural Landscape of Hawraman/Uramanat

India: Dholavira: a Harappan City

Germany/the Netherlands: Frontiers of the Roman Empire — The Lower German Limes

Japan: Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan

France: Nice, Winter Resort Town of the Riviera

Chile: Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region

Germany: ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz

Côte d’Ivoire: Sudanese style mosques in northern Côte d’Ivoire

Italy: The Porticoes of Bologna

Slovenia: The works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana — Human Centred Urban Design

United Kingdom: The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales

Russia: Petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the White Sea

Gabon: Ivindo National Park