UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has concluded its deliberations on sites in danger and commenced the addition of new properties to its prestigious World Heritage List on Saturday.
Sites in Ukraine – the St. Sophia Cathedral and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery complex located in the capital city of Kyiv, as well as the historic center of Lviv in western Ukraine – were deemed “in danger” earlier this week.
UNESCO has finalized discussions regarding candidates for inclusion in the World Heritage List. One of the new additions is the Odzala-Kokoua Forest Massif in Congo, one of Africa’s oldest parks and one of the largest tropical rainforests globally. Additionally, the volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and the Pitons on the French island of Martinique have become new members of the list.
The World Heritage List is expanding:
Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay and the Cat Ba Archipelago have been combined into one entity. In Madagascar, the status of Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, which comprises five protected areas, has been extended to include the Andrefana Dry Forests, found exclusively in the Indian Ocean.
The committee will also review other nominations in the coming days, including a Viking Age ring fortress in Denmark and 2,000-year-old earthworks in Ohio.
LifeIsTravel Note: The 2,000-year-old earthworks in Ohio are an archaeological site representing ancient earth structures created by ancestors of Native Americans from various cultures and periods. These earthworks were constructed approximately 2,000 years ago and are considered a significant part of Ohio’s archaeological heritage and North America as a whole.
To be included in the World Heritage List, a property must possess outstanding universal value and meet specific criteria regularly reviewed by the committee.
