It’s official—the 2019 nominees for UNESCO’s World Heritage List of protected sites have been assembled, and an 11-day deliberation period in Baku, Azerbaijan, begins this week. A special committee dedicated to the task will be voting on the nominations to decide which sites will be awarded the honour of inclusion in the famed World Heritage List.
UNESCO’s World Heritage List, which was initiated in 1978, already contains a total of 1,092 sites in 167 countries and boasts of some of the world’s most famous sites—such as the Pyramids at Giza and the Taj Mahal of India—and this year’s nominees are hoping to join their ranks. It’s not just for the glory and the protection, it’s for the incomparable boost in tourism that winners will be sure to receive.
The selection process is a serious one; UNESCO says that “to be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria”, the official guidelines of which can be found here.
The deliberation committee in Azerbaijan will send field experts to visit and assess the nominated destinations, which have been broken up into different categories—cultural sites, natural sites and mixed sites. The experts will determine whether or not the sites deserve to be included in the World Heritage List, based on what is being done to safeguard and protect them.
Another point on the agenda is a review of conservation strategies implemented on the sites which are on the List of World Heritage in Danger, which includes protected sites like the Old Walled City of Shibam in Yemen and the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, among others.
The committee can remove sites from the endangered list if it is decided that they are no longer in peril, which is what happened in 2018, when the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve system was voted off the list after the Belize government worked tirelessly with non-governmental groups to restore and protect the world’s second largest reef.
Without further ado, here are 2019’s official nominees for the UNESCO World Heritage List:
Natural sites:
- Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I) (China)
- Hyrcanian Forests (Iran)
- Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex (Thailand)
- French Austral Lands and Seas (France)
- Alpi del Mediterraneo — Alpes de la Méditerrané (France / Italy / Monaco)
- Vatnajökull National Park — (Iceland)
Mixed sites (natural and cultural):
- Extension of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region, North Macedonia (Albania)
- Paraty — Culture and Biodiversity (Brazil)
Cultural sites:
- Ancient ferrous metallurgy site (Burkina Faso)
- Dilmun Burial Mounds (Bahrain)
- Babylon (Iraq)
- Budj Bim Cultural Landscape (Australia)
- Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City (China)
- Jaipur City, Rajasthan (India)
- Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto (Indonesia)
- Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan (Japan)
- Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang –Plain of Jars (Lao People’s Democratic Republic)
- Bagan (Myanmar)
- Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies (Republic of Korea)
- Großglockner High Alpine Road (Austria)
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire — The Danube Limes (Austria / Germany / Hungary / Slovakia)
- Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park / Áísínai’pi (Canada)
- Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region (Czech Republic / Germany)
- Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem (Czech Republic)
- Water Management System of Augsburg (Germany)
- Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region (Poland)
- Royal Building of Mafra — Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park, Tapada (Portugal)
- Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga (Portugal)
- Monuments of Ancient Pskov (Russia)
- Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape (Spain)
- Jodrell Bank Observatory (United Kingdom)
- Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace (Azerbaijan)
- Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano a Valdobbiadene (Italy)
- The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (United States of America)
- Sunken City of Port Royal — A Relict and Continuing Cultural Landscape (Jamaica)
- Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá (Panama)
Sites proposed for inscription into the List of World Heritage in Danger:
- The Sundarbans (Bangladesh)
- Ancient City of Nessebar (Bulgaria)
- Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region (Albania / North Macedonia)
- Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California (Mexico)
- Kathmandu Valley (Nepal)
- Babylon (Iraq)
Sites to be examined in view of possible withdrawal from List in Danger:
- Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem (Palestine)
- Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works (Chile)
Keep a close eye on UNESCO’s Twitter account, which will no doubt be blowing up with the announcements of winners to be included into the World Heritage List. The deliberation process is set to be done by July 10. -/TISG