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of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee]] and its Necropolis, including the Pyramids of Giza ( Egypt).]] and architecture in Tanjore ( India).]] ( Germany).]] ( United States).]] ( Greece).]] , Westminster Abbey, and St. Margaret's Church ( United Kingdom).]] ( Australia).]] in Yucatán ( Mexico).]] and its suburbs ( Russia).]] , 25 km southwest of Larkana, Pakistan was center of the Indus Valley Civilization 2600 BC- 1900 BC]] A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that is listed by UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance. The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 state partiesAccording to the UNESCO World Heritage website, States Parties are countries that signed and ratified The World Heritage Convention. As of November 2007, there are a total of 186 state parties. which are elected by their General Assembly for a four- year term.{{cite web |url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/comittee/ |title=The World Heritage Committee |publisher=UNESCO World Heritage Site |accessdate=2006-10-14 }} The program catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. Under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on November 16, 1972. Since then, 186 state parties have ratified the convention. , 890 sites are listed: 689 cultural, 176 natural, and 25 mixed properties, in 148 states. World Heritage List, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites. Twenty-seven new sites inscribed, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites. Italy is home to the greatest number of World Heritage Sites to date with 44 sites inscribed on the list. UNESCO references each World Heritage Site with an identification number; but new inscriptions often include previous sites now listed as part of larger descriptions. As a result, the identification numbers exceed 1200 even though there are fewer on the list. Each World Heritage Site is the property of the state on whose territory the site is located, but it is considered in the interest of the international community to preserve each site.

History

Pre-convention

In 1954, the government of Egypt decided to build the Aswan Dam (Aswan High Dam), an event that would flood a valley containing treasures of ancient Egypt such as the Abu Simbel temples. UNESCO then launched a worldwide safeguarding campaign. The Abu Simbel and Philae temples were taken apart, moved to a higher location, and put back together piece by piece. Brief History, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites. The cost of the project was US$ 80 million, about $ 40 million of which was collected from 50 countries. The project was regarded as a success, and led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a draft convention to protect the common cultural heritage of humanity.

Convention and background

The United States initiated the idea of combining cultural conservation with nature conservation. A White House conference in 1965 called for a ‘World Heritage Trust’ to preserve "the world's superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry." The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, and they were presented in 1972 to the United Nations conference on Human Environment in Stockholm. A single text was agreed on by all parties, and the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.

Nominating process

A country must first take an inventory of its significant cultural and natural properties. This is called the Tentative List, and is important because a country may not nominate properties that have not already been included on the Tentative List. Next, it can select a property from this list to place into a Nomination File. The World Heritage Centre offers advice and help in preparing this file. At this point, the file is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union. These bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. The Committee meets once per year to determine whether or not to inscribe each nominated property on the World Heritage List, and sometimes defers the decision to request more information from the country who nominated the site. There are ten selection criteria - a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list.

Selection criteria

Until the end of 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so that there is only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of "outstanding universal value" and meet at least one of the ten criteria.{{cite web |url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/ |title=Criteria for Selection |publisher=World Heritage |accessdate=2006-10-14 }}

Cultural criteria

Natural criteria

Statistics

There are 890 World Heritage Sites located in 148 countries (state parties). Of these, 689 are cultural, 176 are natural and 25 are mixed properties. The World Heritage Committee has divided the countries into five geographic zones: Africa, Arab States (composed of North Africa and the Middle East), Asia-Pacific (includes Australia and Oceania), Europe & North America ( United States, and Canada) and Latin America & Caribbean. Russia and the Caucasus states are classified as European, while Mexico is classified as belonging to the Latin America & Caribbean zone. The UNESCO geographic zones also give greater emphasis on administrative, rather than geographic associations. Hence, Gough Island, located in the South Atlantic, is part of the Europe & North America region because the government of the United Kingdom nominated the site. The table below includes a breakdown of the sites according to these zones and their classification: Stats

Lists of World Heritage Sites

References

External links

"green air" © 2007 - Ingo Malchow, Webdesign Neustrelitz
This article based upon the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Site, the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Further informations available on the list of authors and history: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_Heritage_Site&action=history
presented by: Ingo Malchow, Mirower Bogen 22, 17235 Neustrelitz, Germany