World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site, site officially considered to be important for the world’s cultural or natural heritage. These sites are selected by the World Heritage Convention, which was adopted by UNESCO in 1972 and came into force in 1975. The Convention states that a World Heritage Committee “will establish, keep up to date, and publish” a World Heritage List of cultural and natural properties, submitted by member states and considered to be of universal value.

By October 2006 the Convention had been signed by 184 countries. The Convention attempts to promote cooperation among nations to protect the worldwide heritage that is recognized as being of such universal value that its conservation is a concern for all people. The Convention is legally binding on signatory countries that must help identify, protect, conserve, and transmit to future generations World Heritage properties. When a site is nominated, experts conduct a careful investigation into its merits. The World Heritage Fund helps give technical cooperation, and emergency assistance in the case of properties severely damaged by specific disasters or threatened with imminent destruction.

At July 2007 there were 851 World Heritage Sites, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, India’s Taj Mahal, New Zealand’s Tongariro National Park, and the United States’ Grand Canyon. The first British World Heritage Site was the Giant’s Causeway; others include St Kilda, Canterbury Cathedral, Blenheim Palace, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City. In 2007 the Arabian Onyx Sanctuary in Oman was deleted from the World Heritage List in response to the reduction of the protected area of the site—this was the first time any site had been delisted. The ratio of cultural to natural sites is about four to one. The Convention also maintains a register of World Heritage in Danger, which lists mainly natural sites and in 2007 included 30 areas in 24 countries. The Convention’s headquarters is in Paris, under the umbrella of UNESCO.