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♤ World Heritage Sites means “Sites any of various areas or objects inscribed on the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage List”.
♤ The sites are designated as having outstanding universal value under the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
♤ This Convention, which was adopted by the UNESCO in 1972 (and enforced in 1975) provides a framework for international cooperation in preserving and protecting cultural treasures and natural areas throughout the world.
♤ The convention defines the kind of sites which can be considered for inscription of the World heritage list (ancient monuments, museums, biodiversity and geological heritage etc.,), and sets out the duties of the State Parties in identifying potential sites and their role in protecting them.
♤ Although many World Heritage sites fall into either the ‘cultural’ or ‘natural’categories, a particularly important aspect of the convention is its ability to recognise lad-scapes that combine these values, and where the biological and physical aspects of landscape have evolved alongside human activity.
♤ The first list of World Heritage state was published in 1978.
♤ The World Heritage Convention reiterates that the protection on sites should be dovetailed with regional planning programmes. This is not happening always. (Agra city developments do not go well the conversation of Taj Mahal is a point).
♤ “Natural heritage sites are restricted to those natural areas that
1. furnish outstanding examples of the Earth’s record of life or its geologic processes.
2. provide excellent examples of ongoing ecological and biological evolutionary processes.
3. contain natural phenomena that are rare, unique, superlative, or of outstanding beauty or
4. furnish habitats or rare endangered animals or plants or are sites of exceptional biodiversity”.
♤ 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. The criteria are given below.