DAVID ADAMS looks at the origins of a scheme to protect sites of international significance…
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INTERNATIONALLY SIGNIFICANT: The Sydney Opera House is one of 19 sites in Australia listed on the World Heritage List. PICTURE: Jacqueline Yong (www.sxc.hu) |
It’s 40 years this month that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) member states adopted the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, aimed at protecting sites around the globe deemed of international importance
The convention was adopted at the 17th session of UNESCO’s general conference held in Paris on 16th November, 1972, and came into force in 1975.
States who sign the convention – and 188 have, including Australia which was one of the first to sign – agree to identify, protect, conserve and present World Heritage sites.
These are found on the World Heritage List, which currently covers 936 sites located in 153 different countries. Included as 725 cultural sites, 183 natural sites and 28 mixed properties.
Internationally, the sites include everything from the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls in Israel, to Africa’s Mount Kenya National Park, the city of Cuzco in Peru, and early settlement sites in the Orkney Isles off the north coast of Scotland.
In Australia, 19 sites are listed. They range from natural features such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian wilderness and the Ningaloo Coast through to buildings like the Sydney Opera House, 11 former penal colonies, and the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
FOR MORE:
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre
If you have a word you’d like to know the origins of, simply send an email to origins@sightmagazine.com.au.
