historic environment

World Heritage

World Heritage Convention
The World Heritage (WH) Convention (adopted by UNESCO in 1972) was ratified by the United Kingdom (UK) in 1984. The Convention provides for the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of cultural and natural sites of "outstanding universal value", and requires a WH List to be established under the management of an inter-governmental WH Committee. As at July 2004 there were 788 such sites throughout the world. Under the terms of the Convention the UK makes an annual contribution to the UNESCO's WH Fund which helps to protect WH Sites in danger, usually in the Third World or war-affected countries.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for the UK's general compliance with the Convention, and for nominating sites in England. The devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service are responsible for choosing sites to nominate from their areas. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is responsible for sites in the UK's overseas territories and the Home Office is responsible for Crown Dependencies.

The UK currently has 26 World Heritage Sites:

• Durham Cathedral and Castle (1986)
• Fountains Abbey, St Mary's Church and Studley
• Royal Park (1986)
• Ironbridge Gorge (1986)
• Stonehenge, Avebury and associated sites (1986)
• Blenheim Palace and Park (1987)
• Palace of Westminster, St Margaret's Church and Westminster Abbey (1987)
• City of Bath (1987)
• Hadrian's Wall (1987)
• The Tower of London (1989)
• Canterbury Cathedral (with St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church) (1988)
• Castle and Town Walls of Edward I in Gwynedd (1986)
• St Kilda (1986) (natural site)
• Giant's Causeway and Causeway coast (1986) (natural site)
• Henderson Island, South Pacific Ocean (1986) (natural site)
• Edinburgh Old and New Towns (1996)
• Gough island Wildlife Reserve, South Atlantic Ocean (1996) (natural site)
• Maritime Greenwich (1997)
• Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999)
• Historic Town of St George and Related
• Fortifications Bermuda (2000)
• Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (2000)
• Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001) (natural site)
• Derwent Valley Mills (2001)
• New Lanark (2001)
• Saltaire (2001)
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003)
• Liverpool Maritme Mercantile City (2004) 

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The UK Tentative List of Future nominations
On 6 April 1999, the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith, announced the 25 sites (including three in the UK's Overseas Territories) to form the new Tentative List of sites which might be nominated for WH status over the next 5-10 years; the inclusion of sites on such a list is a pre-requisite for formal nomination.

Two of these, Blaenavon and St George, Bermuda were given World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in November 2000.  Derwent Valley Mills, Saltaire, New Lanark (by Historic Scotland) and the Dorset and East Devon Coast were all inscribed onto the World Heritage List in December 2001, as was the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2003 and Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City in 2004

The publication of the Tentative List followed a consultation paper issued in August 1998, requesting views on sites which might be included. The paper listed 32 sites. These sites were in the main drawn from nine themes (such as industrial heritage) which had been identified as being under-represented on the WH List.

Over 400 responses to the consultation were received. The paper also reflected UNESCO's concerns (see above) about the current under- representation on the WH List of natural sites, and the over-representation of sites focussing on palaces, cathedrals and historic towns in Western Europe. Thus, the paper gave emphasis to the UK's industrial heritage and global influence, and to sites reflecting the unique qualities of our natural environment, and this was reflected in the final choice of 25 sites.

UK's 2005 Nomination for World Heritage Site Status
Following a rule change by the WH Committee in 2000, effective from 2002, most state parties to the WH Convention including the UK are only allowed to submit one nomination per annum for WH site status. The UK's nomination for 2005 is the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. A decision on the nomination is expected from the WH Committee in July 2006.

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World Heritage Committee
Implementation of the WH Convention is overseen by UNESCO's WH Committee. It comprises 21 member states, each elected for a six year term. Members become involved in a variety of meetings and activities, e.g. responding to calls for assistance for threatened Sites and dealing with general operational and policy issues relating to the Convention.

The UK Government was successful in gaining election to the WH Committee in October 2001, for the first time, for a four year term.

The UK Government has always taken its responsibilities towards WH Sites very seriously. We have a close relationship with the UK branch of the ICOMOS, and in 1994 commissioned it to produce monitoring reports on the condition of all English WH Sites. These reports, published in 1995, were the first of their kind in the world.

The UK has built up considerable expertise on the management of WH Sites, and our work on Management Plans has been highly commended by the WH Centre. Furthermore, the UK Government very much shares the WH Committee's desire to achieve a better balanced WH List, and this is reflected in our Tentative List.

Since rejoining UNESCO in 1997, the UK has enthusiastically contributed to the Convention. We have a wide range of experts, many with excellent international reputations, who can be called upon to advise on all these areas. Indeed, over the years the UK has provided formal and informal training placements for large numbers of conservation professionals from overseas, including those from the Lao PDR, and central and eastern Europe.

In April 2000, the UK hosted a meeting of international experts to help complete work on the revision of the Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the Convention.

The UK has signed a bilateral agreement with UNESCO to assist in support of World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean, sub Saharan Africa ands South Asia and is providing funding under the terms of the agreement. The Government is initially focusing on Caribbean. In February of this year DCMS provided sponsorship of a conference in St Lucia, jointly organised by St Lucia and UNESCO, to develop a Caribbean Action Plan in World Heritage. The UK regards the Conference as the beginning of a process and a catalyst to start raising awareness of the World Heritage Convention in the Caribbean

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World Heritage Site Management Plans
To qualify for WH status, a site must be of outstanding universal value. The criteria for meeting this test are set out in UNESCO's Operational Guidelines. UNESCO also now requires that Management Plans are produced for each site, to bring together all responsible parties in order to ensure a co-ordinated approach to its management.

As at July 2005  the UK had produced Management Plans for the following WH Sites: (Work on Management Plans for the UK's other sites is progressing)

• Hadrian's Wall (1996 and revision in 2002)
• Stonehenge (2000)
• Avebury and associated sites (1998)
• Maritime Greenwich (1999)
• Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (1999)
• Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda (2000)
• Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001 and revision in 2003)
• Derwent Valley Mills (2001 and revision in 2003)
• Heart of Neolithic Orkney (2001)
• New Lanark (2001)
• Saltaire (2001)
• Canterbury Cathedral (2002)
• Fountains Abbey, St Mary's Church and Studley Royal Park (2002)
• Ironbridge Gorde (2002)
• Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2002)
• Henderson Island (2003)
• Giant's Causeways and Causeway Coast (2004)
  

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