What do the Giant’s Causeway, Stonehenge and the Ironbridge Gorge have in common? They were among the first seven UK landmarks to become World Heritage Sites, shortly after Britain ratified the World Heritage Convention in 1984.
By 2008 another 20 sites in the UK and its overseas territories had earned their place alongside the Taj Mahal, the Egyptian pyramids and some 850 other global treasures that UNESCO considers to have outstanding, universal value.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has drawn up a list of ten criteria to determine whether nominated sites meet their exacting requirements, including six cultural criteria and four criteria related to the natural world.
Criteria for World Heritage Sites
Cultural sites qualify, for example, by representing a masterpiece of human creative genius, one reason for selecting Westminster Abbey and Orkney’s Neolithic settlements; or as a building that illustrates a significant stage of human history, part of the reason for selecting 22 of the UK’s 27 approved sites.
The fossil-strewn Dorset and East Devon Coast is the only World Heritage Site in mainland Britain that qualified only on the basis of one of the natural criteria, as representing a major stage of the earth’s history. St Kilda off Scotland’s north-western coast, Gough Island in the South Atlantic and Henderson Island in the South Pacific all qualified for their important natural habitats.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is responsible for Britain’s nominations, usually of one site each year drawn from an official “Tentative List” previously lodged with the Paris-based UNESCO. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee of 21 member states decides whether to inscribe nominated sites as worthy of World Heritage status on the basis of inspection reports by international teams of scientists and other experts.
Heritage Site Inspections
Acceptance is not automatic. The DCMS’s nomination of Charles Darwin’s home at Down House in Bromley, near London, was declined in 2007 on the grounds that the site does not have “outstanding universal value”. The government plans to resubmit the proposal after a review of the criteria for sites representing scientific heritage.
World Heritage Sites are regularly checked and inspection reports may warn of threats to their integrity. UNESCO has expressed its regret concerning road construction plans near Stonehenge. The Tower of London and Westminster were threatened with being put on the “endangered” list because of fears that tall buildings being planned nearby would destroy these two sites’ integrity. The threat was withdrawn in 2007 after government reassurances that the sites would be protected.
Endangered World Heritage Sites
Worldwide, 30 sites are on the endangered list, not as a sanction but as a signal to both the government concerned and the international community that ameliorative steps are needed. Endangered status is likely to attract financial support, particularly for sites in poor countries. Ultimately sites could be deleted from the WHS list, but in practice this has never happened.
Is the achievement and maintenance of WHS status worthwhile? In 2008 the DCMS commissioned the consultancy firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers to conduct a review of the costs and benefits of the process. But not surprisingly, UNESCO, the DCMS and numerous local governments and related organizations think a successful nomination brings significant benefits.
Candidates for World Heritage Status
Being a World Heritage Site is believed to have strengthened the case against applications for building and other developments that could spoil or even destroy irreplaceable evidence of human achievement or natural history. WHS status can also help attract funds for conservation activities and for education programmes, as well as boosting local economies through additional tourism.
However tangible or intangible the benefits of WHS status may be, there is no shortage of new candidates. Steps towards Britain’s next round of formal nominations to UNESCO are already being taken.
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