Six New Natural Wonders Protected for All Humankind

HELSINKI, Finland, December 14, 2001 (ENS)- The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has inscribed six new natural sites on the prestigious World Heritage List and has added extensions to three others during its annual meeting here in Helsinki.

The newly protected sites include a mountain range in Russia where the rare Amur tiger still lives, Great Britain's Dorset and East Devon Coast, Brazil's Cerrado region and Atlantic Islands.

The Alejandro de Humbolt National Park in Cuba is one of the new World Heritage sites, and so is the first natural World Heritage site for the Swiss Alps, the Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.

Forest in the Central Sikhote Alin (Photo courtesy Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences )

The cliff exposures along the Dorset and East Devon Coast of the United Kingdom contain an almost continuous sequence of rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era, or 185 million years of Earth's history. The area is rich in important fossil sites and classic coastal geomorphological features.

Two sites in Brazil were newly inscribed on the World Heritage List - the Cerrado and the Atlantic Islands. The Cerrado, on the Brazilian Central Plateau, has two separated areas included in the World Heritage designation. They contain birds such as toucans, and animals such as tapirs, deer, wolves, and jaguars, and dense arboreal formations that characterize the Cerrado - one of the world's oldest and most diverse tropical ecosystems.

Dolphins at Baia de Golfinhos (Photo courtesy NatalSol Viagens & Turismo)

In Cuba, Alejandro de Humbolt National Park is now officially a World Heritage Site. The committee said, "Complex geology and varied topography have led to a diversity of ecosystems and species unmatched in the insular Caribbean and created one of the most biologically diverse tropical island sites on earth." Many of the underlying rocks are toxic to plants, so species have adapted to survive in these hostile conditions. Many new species have developed as a result, and the park is one of the most important sites in the Western Hemisphere for the conservation of native plants found nowhere else.

The Jungfrau (Photo credit unknown)

Three existing World Heritage sites were enlarged at this week's meeting - in Ecuador, Russia and Kenya.

The committee followed through on its indication earlier this year that the Galapagos Islands World Heritage site would be expanded to include the Galapagos Marine Reserve covering an additional 133,000 square kilometers (5,135 square miles). Located at the confluence of three Pacific Ocean currents 620 miles west of South America, the waters around Ecuador's Galapagos Islands are rich with marine species. Unusual animal life such as the land iguana, the giant tortoise and the many types of finches developed, inspiring Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, following his visit in 1835.

The Volcanoes of Kamchatka site has been enlarged to include the Kluchevskoy Nature Park, which includes some of the most active volcanoes on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. "The interplay of volcanism with active glaciers forms a dynamic landscape of great beauty," the committee said. The site contains high species diversity, including the world's greatest known diversity of salmonoid fish and concentrations of sea otter, brown bear and Steller's sea eagle.

Boys fishing on Lake Turkana (Photo courtesy Southern Cross Safaris)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.

This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

Sites inscribed on the World Heritage List benefit by increased attention to their conservation by the countries that nominated them. The World Heritage Committee helps the 167 countries that are Parties to the convention to safeguard their World Heritage sites by providing technical assistance and professional training.

The World Heritage Committee provides emergency assistance for World Heritage sites in immediate danger, and encourages local, national and international cooperation in conservation of cultural and natural heritage.

Following today's additions, 167 sites have been inscribed on the World Heritage List for their natural values, including international landmarks such as the Serengeti, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef.

With the prestige of World Heritage listing comes responsibility, says the IUCN - The World Conservation Union, which acts as the Advisory Body for natural heritage to the World Heritage Committee.

"The underlying principle is that sites that are inscribed on the list become the heritage of all the world's people," the IUCN says. "Therefore, national governments, under the principles of sovereignty, have a responsibility to protect these sites for humankind, yet all the signatories to the Convention undertake to help the individual countries protect their World Heritage sites."