World heritage sites
World Heritage Sites (WHS) are places of outstanding universal importance to humankind, both cultural and natural. Some sites have attributes which are both cultural and natural.
In 1972, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation) drew up the World Heritage Convention under which governments of member states identify such sites and put them forward to the World Heritage Committee to be inscribed on a list maintained by UNESCO.
Sites have to satisfy one or more of a list of criteria and also be assessed against tests of their authenticity and a management framework for their effective protection.
Once a WHS is inscribed, the 'state party' (UNESCO's terminology for the government) has a duty under the convention to protect, conserve, present and transmit WHS's to future generations. The are 812 WHS's in 137 states including 628 cultural sites, 160 natural sites and 24 mixed sites. Examples include the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, Gothic cathedrals and the historic centres of a number of cities.
The UK currently has 26 sites inscribed, a full list of which can be found on the UNESCO website: www.unesco.org/culture
Our world heritage sites are:
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was inscribed in 1987, meeting three of the UNESCO criteria as:
- Bearing an outstanding testimony to a past civilisation
- Being an outstanding example of a building and technology which illustrates a significant stage in human history
- Being an outstanding example of landuse which is representative of a culture
The part of the Upper German and Raetian frontier between the rivers Rhine and Danube was inscribed in July 2005 as an extension of Hadrian's Wall. At the same time, the name has changed to 'Frontiers of the Roman Empire WHS' as a trans-national WHS, containing initially Hadrian's Wall and the upper German frontier. Other parts of the frontier will be added in due course.
Those countries which have already declared their intention to put forward their sections of the frontier are Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, as well as the Antonine Wall in the UK. The Frontiers of the Roman Empire WHS could in time embrace the line of the entire frontier of the Roman Empire from the Solway Firth to the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
Wearmouth-Jarrow candidate world heritage site
Wearmouth-Jarrow is to be the UK's nomination for UNESCO World Heritage Site Status in 2010.
Wearmouth-Jarrow's outstanding universal value lies in its influence on learning, its part in the emergence of European identity, the survival of original fabric, and as the home of one of scholarship's original giants - Bede.
Inscription will heighten awareness of the site, the region, and Britain; bring an uplift in tourism, potentially worth millions of pounds to the local economy, securing and creating many jobs; increase educational potential; and enrich community identity.
St Peter's, Wearmouth A Management Plan will identify management issues and objectives around understanding of the site, taking into account the condition of the fabric, building conservation, townscape, ecology and the natural environment, transportation and heritage, tourism and culture, regeneration and conservation and the extent of a physical buffer zone.
Key studies considered specialist issues which will inform this work. These involved the preparation of a Conservation Plan, an Education Strategy, an Economic Impact and Tourism Assessment, and a Visitor Management and Interpretation Strategy.
It is also intended to update the Archaeological GIS, and carry out a geo-archaeological evaluation of the site.' (taken from www.wearmouth-jarrow.org.uk)
