UNESCO adds new Marine Heritage Sites

The World Heritage Committee chaired by Themba Wakashe, South Africa's Deputy Director-General for Heritage and National Archives, inscribed seven natural sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The Committee also decided to extend two natural sites already on the List. The one is extended in size while the extension of the other makes it both a natural and cultural site.

With these inscriptions, UNESCO World Heritage List numbers 160 natural sites and 24 mixed sites (i.e. both natural and cultural) of outstanding universal value around the world. Marine heritage sites named include:

Shiretoko Peninsula located in the northeast of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. The site includes the land from the central part of the Peninsula to its tip (Shiretoko Cape) and the surrounding marine area. It provides an outstanding example of the interaction of marine and terrestrial ecosystems as well as extraordinary ecosystem productivity largely influenced by the formation of seasonal sea ice at the lowest latitude in the northern hemisphere.

It has particular importance for a number of marine and terrestrial species, some of them endangered and endemic, such as the Blackiston's Fish owl and the Viola kitamiana plant. The site is globally important for threatened sea birds and migratory birds, a number of salmonid species, and for a number of marine mammals, including the Steller’s sea lion, and some cetacean species.

In Norway – West Norwegian Fjords Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord were named. Situated in southwestern Norway, northeast of Bergen, Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord, set 120km from one another, are part of the west Norwegian fjord landscape, which stretches from Stavanger in the south to Andalsnes, 500km to the northeast. The two fjords, among the world's longest and deepest, are considered as archetypical fjord landscapes and among the most scenically outstanding anywhere.

Their exceptional natural beauty is derived from their narrow and steep-sided crystalline rock walls that rise up to 1,400m from the Norwegian Sea and extend 500m below sea level. The sheer walls of the fjords have numerous waterfalls while free flowing rivers cross their deciduous and coniferous forests to glacial lakes, glaciers and rugged mountains. The landscape features a range of supporting natural phenomena, both terrestrial and marine such as submarine moraines and marine mammals.

Mexico - Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California were added. The site comprises 244 islands, islets and coastal areas that are located in the Gulf of California in northeastern Mexico. The Sea of Cortez and its islands have been called a natural laboratory for the investigation of speciation.

Moreover, almost all major oceanographic processes occurring in the planet's oceans are present in the property, giving it extraordinary importance for study. The site is one of striking natural beauty in a dramatic setting formed by rugged islands with high cliffs and sandy beaches, which contrast with the brilliant reflection from the desert and the surrounding turquoise waters.

The site is home to 695 vascular plant species, more than in any marine and insular property on the World Heritage List. Equally exceptional is the number of fish species: 891, ninety of them endemic. The site, moreover, contains 39% of the world's total number of species of marine mammals and a third of the world's marine cetacean species.

Panama - Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection Coiba National Park, off the southwest coast of Panama, protects Coiba Island, 38 smaller islands and the surrounding marine areas within the Gulf of Chiriqui. Protected from the cold winds and effects of El Niño, Coiba's Pacific tropical moist forest maintains exceptionally high levels of endemism of mammals, birds and plants due to the ongoing evolution of new species. It is also the last refuge for a number of threatened animals such as the crested eagle. The property is an outstanding natural laboratory for scientific research and provides a key ecological link to the Tropical Eastern Pacific for the transit and survival of pelagic fish and marine mammals.

The 29th session of the 21-member World Heritage Committee will continue until July 17 with the inscription of cultural sites on the World Heritage List. The Committee, which is in charge of implementing the 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, will also consider the need to place certain World Heritage sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger so as to help overcome obstacles to their conservation.

On Wednesday the Committee removed three sites from the List of World Heritage in Danger List, recognizing progress in their conservation: Sangay National Park (Ecuador), Timbuktu (Mali), Butrint (Albania). To learn more visit: UNESCO World Heritage Sites

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