WORLD HERITAGE IN DANGER

Looting, war, deliberate destruction, industrial pollution, uncontrolled urbanisation, mining, land speculation, unchecked tourist development and natural disasters pose major problems for World Heritage sites. Threatened by one or several of these situations, 33 sites (15 cultural and 18 natural) have been inscribed on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger (http://whc.unesco.org/nwhc.fr/pages/sites/main.htm). Sub-Saharan Africa, with 13 of these sites, is the region most affected. Others are the Arab world (six sites), Asia (six), Europe (three), Latin America (three) and North America (two).

Under the 1972 UN Convention for protecting the world's cultural and natural heritage, the list of heritage in danger includes sites whose protection requires "major operations and for which assistance has been requested". Being on this list is not a punishment, but more a way of encouraging the international community to join efforts to save endangered sites. As a first step, UNESCO's World Heritage Fund can help to finance emergency work.

In 1992, for example, the inscription of Angkor Wat (Cambodia) on both the World Heritage List and the endangered list, led to a wave of international solidarity that enabled many of the site's monuments to be restored, widespread looting of temples to be stopped, general site improvements and the establishment of a national authority to protect and run it. Today, 35 countries and international organisations are involved in about 100 research, restoration, training, community development or tourist projects costing a total of $5 million a year.
In Africa, five natural sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo were added to the endangered list between 1994 and 1999 after the wars that ravaged the area. These were the Salonga, Garamba,Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega national parks and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. Being on the list brought much international support for efforts to preserve local institutions, demilitarise the parks and preserve their exceptional biodiversity (including gorillas, white rhinoceroses and okapi). A $4.2 million project was launched in 2000, with backing from the United Nations Foundation.

Despite these advantages, inscribing a site on the endangered list often meets resistance and in recent years has even been the subject of legal debate. In theory, the World Heritage Committee (the inter-governmental body in charge of implementing the Convention) "may at any time, in case of urgent need," add a site to the endangered list. But some governments see this as a slight and reject the Committee's opinion and argue that a site can only be put on the endangered list if the country involved requests it.

This reluctance partly explains why there are so few sites on the endangered list when there are dozens that are causing concern. Legally, the Committee can decide to remove very endangered sites from the World Heritage List. But this drastic step has never been taken.