14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced yesterday that they are adding a new batch of regions from around the world to their List of Natural World Heritage sites. The decision to include the new sites was taken by the independent inter-governmental body known as the World Heritage Commission (WHC), whose job is to designate and protect vital cultural and natural sites from around the world, OurAmazingPlanet reports.
The WHC has been meeting in Brazil since July 25, discussing pros and cons to including the 32 newly-proposed sites to the List. The opinion expressed by the UN International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also held great value for the Commission, which in the end decided to add the La Reunion Island (France), the Siberian Putorana Plateau (Russia) and the Phoenix Islands Protected Areas of Kiribati to the List. The latter entry was selected because the small South Pacific nation occupies 32 coral atolls, of inestimable value.
Also based on IUCN recommendations, the WHC decided to extende the protected areas it already had designated in the Monte San Giorgio region of Switzerland, and in Bulgaria's Pirin National Park. In addition to the newly-selected sites, the Commission also added a few other sites to a different list last week. The Everglades National Park, in Florida, and the Rainforests of Atsinanana were placed on the World Heritage Sites in Danger list. This document is different than the other List through the fact that it plays a more important role in drawing international attention and funding to areas that are particular threatened by human activities or natural factors.
But the WHC also took a less-than-popular decision during the same meetings. Against the advice of virtually every conservation group in the world, delegates agreed to remove the Galapagos Islands from the danger list, even though species living here are unique, and also declining due to crippling human influences. The Islands are well known because Charles Darwin himself studied the countless endemic species that live here during his voyages. It is believed that the area influenced him in developing his theory concerning the origins of species. c