Património Mundial, Cultural e Natural da UNESCO
 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization drafted the “General Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” in 1972. The General Convention defined the kind of natural or cultural heritage sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List and established the World Heritage Fund and the World Heritage Committee. The Convention sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites and their role in protecting and preserving the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. By signing the Convention, each country pledges to conserve not only the World Heritage sites located within its own territory, but also to protect its national heritage.

The People’s Republic of China ratified the Convention in 1985 and from then until 2002, 28 sites had been included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO.
 

(A) UNESCO World Heritage Mission:

• Encourage countries to sign the 1972 Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage;

• Encourage States Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List;

• Encourage States Parties to set up reporting systems on the state of the conservation of World Heritage sites;

• Help States Parties safeguard World Heritage sites by providing technical assistance and professional training;

• Provide emergency assistance for World Heritage sites by providing technical assistance and professional training;

• Support States Parties’ public awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation;

• Encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage;

• Encourage international cooperation in the conservation of cultural and natural heritage.

 

(B) Definition of the Cultural Heritage:

 “Cultural Heritage" designates a monument, group of buildings or site of historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value.

 

Types of Cultural Heritage:

1. Monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;

2. Groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;

3. Sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.

 

Criteria for the inclusion of Cultural properties in the World Heritage List:

1. Represent a masterpiece of art and human creative genius;

2. Exhibit an important interchange of human values over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design;

3. Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or has disappeared;

4. Be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble, or landscape which illustrates a significant stage or significant stages in human history;

5. Be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or land-use which is representative of a culture or cultures, especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;

6. Be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas or with beliefs, or with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance (a criterion used only in exceptional circumstances, and together with other criteria).

 

(C) Definition of the Natural Heritage:

“Natural Heritage” designates outstanding physical, biological and geological features; habitats of threatened plants or animal species and areas of value on scientific or aesthetic grounds or from a conservation perspective.

 

Types of natural heritage

1 Physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view.

2 Geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

3. Natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.

 

Criteria for the inclusion of Natural properties in the World Heritage List:

1. Be outstanding examples representing major stages of the earth's history, including the record of life, significant ongoing geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;

2. Be outstanding examples representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;

3. Contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;

4. Contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

 

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