Posted on 20/12/2001

Six New Natural Wonders Protected

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. In the Russian Federation, the committee
inscribed the mountains of the Central Sikhote Alin as a World Heritage
Site. The mountains are covered with what the committee called "one the
richest and most unusual temperate forests of the world." It is a mixing
zone between taiga and the subtropics where southern species such as the
tiger and Himalayan bear cohabit with northern species such as brown bear
and lynx. They run down to the Sea of Japan and are important for the
survival of endangered species such as the Amur tiger.

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.

The Brazilian Atlantic Islands were also designated a World Heritage Site.
Baia de Golfinhos has an exceptional population of resident dolphins and at
low tide the Rocas Atoll provides a spectacular seascape of lagoons and
tidal pools teeming with fish. Their waters are important breeding and
feeding areas for tuna, sharks, turtles and marine mammals including
endangered species such as the hawksbill turtle. The islands are inhabited
by the largest concentration of tropical seabirds in the Western Atlantic
Ocean.

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 first natural World Heritage site for the Alps, the
Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn mountains of Switzerland are one of the most
glaciated areas in the Alps. This newly inscribed World Heritage Site
includes Europe's largest glacier and a range of classic features resulting
from glacial activity such as U-shaped valleys, cirques, horn peaks and
moraines. The committee said, "The impressive vista of the North Wall of
the High Alps, centred on the mountains of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, has
played an important role in European literature and art."

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 Stellar's sea eagle.

In Kenya, Southern Island National Park has been added to the Lake Turkana
National Parks World Heritage site. The national parks are a stopover point
for migrant waterbirds and are important breeding grounds for Nile
crocodile, hippopotamus and a range of venomous snakes. The Koobi Fora
deposits, rich in mammalian, molluscan
and other fossil remains, have contributed more to understanding
paleoenvironments than any other site on the African continent. 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."