UNESCO weighs endangered status for threatened sites

PARIS

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee will consider extending protection to several cultural and natural sites threatened by conflict, development and environmental damage when it meets in Busan, South Korea, from July 19 to 29.

The committee will examine three nominations under an emergency procedure: Sebastia in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon’s Mount Amel Castles and South Sudan’s Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape.

UNESCO advisers have recommended that Sebastia and Boma–Badingilo be added simultaneously to the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Located northwest of Nablus, Sebastia is a multi-period archaeological site widely identified with the ancient city of Samaria. UNESCO documents say it faces threats from land expropriation plans, development pressures and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Boma–Badingilo encompasses grasslands, wetlands and savannas used by an estimated 6 million migrating antelopes and gazelles. The landscape faces insecurity, commercial poaching, infrastructure development and gaps in legal protection.

The five Mount Amel castles in southern Lebanon are also being processed under the emergency procedure. UNESCO documents say the sites have suffered damage and continue to face serious threats from the conflict.

Several existing World Heritage sites are also being considered for the “in danger” list.

They include the ancient ruins of Tyre in Lebanon, which UNESCO says have been damaged by hostilities, and the Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora in Russian-occupied Crimea, where unauthorized excavations, large construction projects and the removal of artifacts have been reported.

Lake Baikal in Russia, the world’s deepest lake, is also under consideration because of weakened legal protection, pollution, water-level regulation, large-scale tourism development and climate change.

“We may not have the means to deploy peacekeepers ... but we can send a message to the entire world,” World Heritage Centre Director Lazare Eloundou Assomo told AFP.

He said an “in danger” listing was intended not as a reprimand but to help countries attract funding, partners and international attention.

Other sites seeking regular World Heritage status include the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, two Amazonian theaters in Brazil and the Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said.