World Heritage Facts
- ‘World Heritage Sites are places or buildings of outstanding universal value recognised as constituting a world heritage 'for whose protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole to co-operate.’
- The World Heritage Convention, adopted by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) in 1972, was ratified by the United Kingdom in 1984. The Convention provides for the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of cultural and natural sites of outstanding universal value. This requires a World Heritage list to be established under the management of an intergovernmental World Heritage Committee. This is advised by 3 NGOs including ICOMOS.
- Under the Convention, each nation state must prepare a Tentative List of potential World Heritage Sites. Inclusion on the Tentative List is the essential first step for nomination for any potential World Heritage Site. The first UK Tentative List was published in 1986, and the second in 1999, by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The twin Anglo-Saxon monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow was included on the Tentative List in 1999, because:
'this combination of rare early medieval standing fabric with one of the most enduring and influential figures in contemporary culture make the twin monastery site of Wearmouth and Jarrow a site of world importance.' - There are currently 830 World Heritage Sites, considered by UNESCO to have cultural or natural outstanding universal value. The UK sites are:
- Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast, Durham Castle and Cathedral, Ironbridge Gorge, Studley Royal Park and ruins of Fountains Abbey, Stonehenge, Avebury and associated sites, Castle and Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd, St Kilda, The City of Bath, Blenheim Palace, Hadrian's Wall (Frontiers of the Roman Empire), Westminster Palace Westminster Abbey St Margaret's Church, Henderson Island, Tower of London, Canterbury Cathedral St Augustine's Abbey St Martin's Church, Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, Gough Island Wildlife Reserve, Maritime Greenwich, Heart of Neolithic Orkney, Historic Town of St George and related fortifications Bermuda, Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, Dorset and East Devon Coast, Derwent Valley Mills, New Lanark, Saltaire, Kew Gardens, Maritime Mercantile City Liverpool, Cornish and West Devon Mining Landscape.
- In order to make the case for World Heritage Site status, sites must prepare a Management Plan, which explains how the site will be managed, protected, and used for purposes such as education and tourism, and a Nomination Document, which includes a statement of outstanding universal value setting out how the site meets the criteria for World Heritage, and statements of authenticity and integrity. Preparation of these for Weamouth-Jarrow is currently underway and has been informed by a series of Key Issue Studies carried out in 2005 and 2006, examining: the Setting of the candidate World Heritage; Conservation, Education, Visitor Management and Interpretation, Tourism and Economic Impact.