War, climate change put world treasures at risk as UN weighs new ‘in danger’ listings
The United Nations cultural agency is set to place several major heritage sites on its list of places under threat, with war, climate change, pollution and ecological degradation putting some of the world’s most important landmarks and natural landscapes at risk.The 196 member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) will vote on additions to its World Heritage and World Heritage in Danger lists from Friday next week, when the World Heritage Committee meets in Busan, South Korea. Among the sites expected to receive urgent attention are a Biblical archaeological site in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, castles in southern Lebanon, a vast antelope migration route in South Sudan and Russia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake.“We may not have the means to deploy peacekeepers… but we can send a message to the entire world,” the director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou Assomo told AFP.“These sites are important, and everything must be done to prevent their destruction.”Safeguarding heritage, he added, “allows communities that have been traumatised, victims of conflicts, to begin to come back and rebuild”.Three sites that are not currently on the World Heritage list are expected to be fast-tracked directly to the list of endangered places.Among them could be Sebastia, identified as Biblical Samaria, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. The archaeological site lies in an area under Israeli control, while Palestinians in the nearby village, which is under dual Israeli-Palestinian control, have long relied on tourism to the ruins for their livelihoods.Residents fear Israel could completely cut off access to the site. Israel left UNESCO in 2017 but remains a member of the World Heritage Committee, which has the final say on inscriptions to both lists.Five castles in southern Lebanon are also expected to receive priority after the region came under fire from Israel. One of them, the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif, also known as Beaufort Castle, was captured by Israeli troops in May.UNESCO members are also expected to vote on directly listing the Boma-Badingilo grassland and woodland savannahs in South Sudan as being under threat from both war and climate change.The vast wilderness between the White Nile and the Ethiopian border is crossed by around one million animals, including antelopes and gazelles, during annual migrations. The movement of the herds has left scars on the grasslands that can be seen from the sky.Several sites already on the World Heritage list could also be added to the list of endangered places.They include the remains of Roman baths, a second-century triumphal arch and a hippodrome in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which has faced heavy Israeli bombardment in recent months.Another possible candidate is the ancient Greek settlement of Tauric Chersonese in Crimea, a peninsula Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine says the site is threatened by unauthorised excavations, large-scale construction projects and the relocation of artefacts following Russia’s invasion of Crimea.Lake Baikal, which contains 20 per cent of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater reserve according to Russia, could also be declared in danger. The Siberian lake is facing pressure from pollution, mass tourism, large-scale logging and falling water levels linked to a dam upstream in Mongolia.Known as the “Galapagos of Russia”, Lake Baikal is home to a vast range of flora and fauna. In a 2023 report, UNESCO warned that the “unfolding ecological degradation of Lake Baikal” would have to be urgently halted and reversed or the lake would be classified as being in danger.“Some actions are being implemented to address this,” it added, but “the mission considers that they are not sufficient”.UNESCO’s World Heritage list currently includes around 1,200 sites worldwide. Inclusion can bring a major boost to tourism and unlock funding for conservation, while the endangered designation is intended to help countries secure “funding, partners and attention” rather than serve as a reprimand, Assomo said.Other sites are also seeking World Heritage recognition. France’s Normandy beaches, where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, during World War II, could finally receive UNESCO status, while two theatres built in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and the Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said are also in contention.
