As it does every year, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is meeting this summer in New Delhi, India, for ten days starting this Sunday. UNESCO actually has until the end of July to decide whether Britain’s prehistoric Stonehenge, as well as Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha in Nepal, should be listed as endangered world heritage sites.
Success or punishment?
But the discussions promise to be as intense as diplomatic practice allows. Unlike usual, new site registrations are less of a threat to some already established sites that can get people talking. Because if the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization insists that placing a site on its list of endangered places is not a sanction, many concerned countries, especially Western countries, accept it as such. And they are fighting step by step to prevent such an event.
Venice, thus it was threatened by UNESCO last year Due to the impact of global warming and especially overtourism on the city in 2024 visitor flow management system it now only charges if they stay a day during peak periods.
After years of conflict with UNESCO, Australia has finally invested three billion euros to improve water quality, mitigate the effects of climate change and protect endangered species, thanks to a change in leadership, so it is not ruled to be in the Great Barrier Reef. danger.
A road tunnel near Stonehenge?
The British government has long fought to implement a road tunnel project near Stonehenge, “the world’s most architecturally complex prehistoric stone circle” according to UNESCO, which inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 1986.
The British judiciary blocked the first version of the project in July 2021, citing fears about its environmental impact on the site.
But the Conservatives, who have been in power for 14 years, have pushed ahead with the tunnel, arguing it will further protect Stonehenge by decongesting the site. Lazare Eloundou, UNESCO’s World Heritage director, said new Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party, in office since July, has a different “line” on the issue, but he says London is ignoring the proposals. Visit New Delhi about Stonehenge.
Nepal’s Lumbini ‘severely deteriorating’
Another sensitive spot, Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in Nepal, was long lost and overrun by jungle before it was rediscovered in 1896, when the presence of a pillar with an inscription dating back to the 3rd century BC allowed historians to “identify” it.
A century later, in 1997, it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and is visited by millions of Buddhists every year.
Lazare Eloundou notes: “The area is in danger because many monuments are not well maintained and are seriously damaged.” “And then there’s a lot of completely useless projects,” he notes, all of which “have little effect on the universal value of the site.” “All of Southeast Asia is watching this with great concern,” said Lazare Eloundou.
Sites in unstable countries
The heritage committee in New Delhi will also look at sites already threatened by the instability of the countries where they are located, such as Bamiyan and its Buddhas in Afghanistan or Sana’a in Yemen, as well as other sites through upgrades. , can be removed from this list.
Like the Niokolo Koba nature park in Senegal, it has long been shunned by its wildlife, but what elephants are now returning – this is not necessarily the case for other species, especially the wild dog that lives here, we at UNESCO emphasize.
The UN organization will eventually explore the registration of 25 new world heritage sites, including the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, memorial sites linked to Nelson Mandela in South Africa or the Lensua Maranhenses Natural Park in Brazil, a vast area criss-crossed by vast sand dunes. lagoons sometimes dark blue, sometimes turquoise green.