The World Heritage Committee is meeting in Bonn, Germany, from 28 June to 8 July to examine the nominations to add 36 properties to the World Heritage List. As part of the evaluation process, UNEP-WCMC completed a comparative analysis of the proposed sites nominated under biodiversity criteria (ix and x), which helped inform the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) recommendations to the World Heritage Committee.

This year, a total of 37 site proposals are being considered for inclusion on the World Heritage List: five natural sites, 30 cultural sites and one mixed site. All natural and mixed sites considered this year have been nominated under at least one or more biodiversity criteria. Meeting every year, the World Heritage Committee also reviews the state of conservation reports for sites already listed as World Heritage sites and those that are on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

UNEP-WCMC contributes to IUCN’s recommendations to UNESCO and hence to the review of proposals by performing a comparative analysis for all properties nominated under biodiversity criteria against existing World Heritage sites, Tentative List sites and sites that have been mentioned in previous IUCN thematic studies. The study is based on a spatial analysis that considers almost every set of global biodiversity data, including biogeography, conservation priorities and species, as well as an extensive literature review.

The report prepared by UNEP-WCMC contributes to a larger review that includes a field visit to the proposed site, desk-based reviews, and consultations with stakeholders including national and local authorities, local communities and indigenous people, and non-governmental organizations. IUCN then compiles all the information and presents a Technical Evaluation Report to the World Heritage Committee.

The recommendations will be debated by the World Heritage Committee in Bonn and their decisions will be announced during the course of the meeting. For those natural sites that successfully join the World Heritage List, UNEP-WCMC will prepare a datasheet that provides information on the history, location, physical features, climate, vegetation, fauna, conservation value, cultural heritage, management and more, of the site. The datasheets, which are maintained by UNEP-WCMC, are publically available and contain a wealth of information on every natural or mixed World Heritage site.

UNEP-WCMC will be attending the meeting and will make a presentation at a side event on the comparative analysis and preliminary findings of the remote sensing work to monitor natural World Heritage sites.

Follow the meeting online at whc.unesco.org 

Geirangerfjord is part of the West Norwegian Fjords World Heritage site. Photo credit: Ludovic Péron (CC BY-SA 3.0)