By John Yeld
Environment and Science Writer
The spectacular peaks, craters and ramparts of the volcanic mountains of Reunion are among five new natural areas to be declared World Heritage Sites by the UN.
Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where America conducted many nuclear tests in the 1940s and 50s, has been declared a cultural World Heritage Site, while the cultural values of Tanzania's famous Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, which was inscribed as a natural site in 1979, have now also been recognised and it has been inscribed as a mixed heritage site.
Unesco's World Heritage Committee, which is meeting in Brazil, wrapped up its deliberations on nominations for the World Heritage List and of the List of World Heritage in Danger on Tuesday.
The committee, of which South Africa is a member, inscribed 21 new sites: 15 cultural sites, five natural sites and one mixed site.
This mixed site is the US Pacific Ocean territory of Papahanaumokuakea - a vast and isolated cluster of small, low-lying islands and atolls about 400km north-west of Hawaii and extending more than about 1 900km.
Three countries - Kiribati, Marshall Islands (both in the Pacific) and Tajikistan - have had their first World Heritage Sites inscribed.
The IUCN (World Conservation Union), which makes recommendations about heritage site nominations to Unesco, welcomed the inscription of Reunion, but warned that there would be challenges managing it.
Tim Badman, head of the organisation's World Heritage Programme, pointed out that the Indian Ocean island contained the most significant remaining natural habitats for the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity in the Mascarene Island Archipelago, including a range of rare forest type.
Towering volcanoes, including steep rock walls and natural amphitheatres, as well as deep forested gorges and escarpments, formed dramatic scenery of striking beauty, he added.
"La Reunion contains an impressive mosaic of dramatic landscapes and very valuable ecosystems, and also serves as a last refuge for the many threatened and endangered species on the entire Mascarene Archipelago. But controlling alien invasive species will be an ongoing challenge in the management of this property."
Badman also welcomed the inscription of Russia's Putorana Plateau, whose "striking natural beauty" included more than 25 000 fjord-like lakes, dozens of deep canyons, rivers and creeks, and thousands of waterfalls. It represented one of the only centres of plant species richness in the Arctic, he pointed out.
"The combination of extraordinary landscape diversity, remoteness and naturalness makes the Putorana Plateau one of the truly wild places remaining in the Arctic at a time of increasing pressure on this fascinating region.
"World Heritage status not only provides a strong and permanent conservation framework, but there's a great opportunity to better understand the impacts of climate change in large undisturbed arctic ecosystems."
Kiribati's Phoenix Island's Protected Area was one of the largest marine environments in the world that had remained intact because of its remoteness, said Tilman Jaeger, an IUCN World Heritage project management officer.
"The Phoenix Island's exceptionally healthy species of fish, turtles and its bleaching-resistant corals deserve the highest degree of protection. Continued international support to Kiribati for the management of the site will be vital to guarantee its conservation."
World treasures to be preserved
New cultural World Heritage Sites:
- Australian convict sites;
- Sao Francisco Square in the town of São Cristóvão (Brazil);
- Historic monuments of Dengfeng, in the Centre of Heaven and Earth (China);
- Episcopal city of Albi (France);
- Jantar Mantar (India);
- Sheikh Safi al-Din Khanegah and Shrine Ensemble in Ardabil (Islamic Republic of Iran);
- Tabriz historical bazaar complex (Islamic Republic of Iran);
- Bikini Atoll, nuclear test site (Marshall Islands);
- Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Mexico);
- Prehistoric caves of Yagul and Mitla in the Central Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico);
- Seventeenth-century canal ring area inside the Singelgracht, Amsterdam (Netherlands);
- Historic villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yangdong (Republic of Korea);
- At Turaif District in ad-Dir'iyah (Saudi Arabia);
- Proto-Urban site of Sarazm (Tajikistan); and
- Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi (Viet Nam).
And the magnificent list continues...
- China Danxia (China);
- Peaks, craters, and ramparts of Reunion Island (France);
- Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Kiribati);
- Putorana Plateau (Russian Federation); and
- Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.
New mixed World Heritage Site:
- Papahanaumokuakea islands and atolls (US).
World Heritage Sites that have been extended:
- City of Graz - historic centre and Schloss Eggenberg (Austria);
- Pirin National Park (Bulgaria);
- Mines of Rammelsberg, historic town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water management System (Germany);
- Røros Mining Town and the Circumference (Norway);
- Churches of Moldavia;
- Prehistoric rock-art sites in the Côa Valley and in Siega Verde (Portugal); and
- Monte San Giorgio (Italy)