Status of World Heritage sites hangs in balance as Unesco debates list

THE world heritage committee of the UN’s cultural agency Unesco begins debating on Friday its list of World Heritage sites, with Australia and Britain furious over looming changes to the status of the Great Barrier Reef and Liverpool city.

Nearly 50 new sites could be added to the over 1 100 listed worldwide, during two weeks of online meetings hosted by China. The agenda is particularly heavy after last year’s meeting was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic.

The World Heritage label can be a boon for tourism while encouraging governments to protect cultural or environmental treasures. But addition isn’t permanent, and sites can also be stripped of their status or be warned they are at risk.

The agency’s expert committee will be examining the state of conservation of around 250 sites, of which 53 are already on its “List of World Heritage in Danger”.

The at-risk list includes the historic waterfront and docks of Liverpool, the northwest England port city that played a key role in Britain’s industrial revolution, and which risks outright deletion.

Another high-profile site threatened with losing its heritage status is the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, one of Africa’s biggest remaining wilderness expanses.

Unesco experts say rampant elephant poaching as well as the sale of logging rights and a dam project on the Rufiji river could cause “irreversible damage.”

Australia meanwhile has assailed the recommendation to add the Great Barrier Reef to the in-danger list after seeing the 2 300km system lose half its corals since 1995.

The government blames global warming for mass coral “bleaching” in recent years, which occurs when the invertebrates expel algae living in their tissues that supply a crucial source of nutrients.

Unesco experts counter that pollution run-off has contributed to a drop in water quality, pointing in particular at the Carmichael Coal Mine, and say clean-up efforts have fallen short.

Another site that may go on the in-danger list is Venice, where Unesco has warned for years about the risk of irreparable structural damage to the lagoon city from the waves generated by huge cruise ships.