{"id":36956,"date":"2023-07-07T18:14:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T17:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=36956"},"modified":"2023-07-07T18:14:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T17:14:22","slug":"new-context-out-on-world-heritage-sites-designation-armageddon-and-even-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=36956","title":{"rendered":"New Context out, on World Heritage Sites, designation, Armageddon and even more"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The new issue of the IHBC\u2019s members\u2019 journal, Context<\/em> No. 176<\/a>, explores the diverse facets of World Heritage Sites alongside a myriad of other aspects of conservation \u2013 designation, Armageddon and more \u2013 from across our globe.<\/h3>\n

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\u2026highlights some of the very best of what the world has to offer\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

The IHBC writes:<\/p>\n

The new Tentative List, the UK government\u2019s latest attempt to add to Unesco\u2019s list of world heritage sites, now has seven sites from across the UK and Overseas Territories. Most, if not all of them, will never make it to Unesco\u2019s list, but the government, local authorities and devolved administrations will now work hard to develop their bids.<\/p>\n

\u2018Site\u2019 in the phrase \u2018world heritage site\u2019 is defined rather broadly, as the UK\u2019s tentative seven show. The first two on the list are distinct places. \u2018Birkenhead the People\u2019s Park\u2019 as the list describes it, is the pioneering municipal park. It opened in 1847, across the River Mersey from Liverpool, which no longer has a world heritage site. Next comes York, which the government announcement breathlessly tells us has \u2018fantastic civic and religious buildings including its Minster as well as a rich history left behind by its Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman inhabitants\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Zenith of Iron Age Shetland\u2019 is a collection of three ancient settlements, one on the island of Mousa, the other two on the Shetland mainland, all three including the remains of round towers known as brochs. The proposed site of \u2018Gracehill Moravian Church Settlement in Northern Ireland\u2019 is part of a joint bid alongside other Moravian religious sites in Denmark, the USA and Germany, celebrating that religious community.<\/p>\n

The other three \u2018sites\u2019 on the tentative list are what are classified as \u2018natural\u2019 rather than \u2018cultural\u2019. \u2018East Atlantic Flyway: England East Coast Wetlands\u2019 is not so much a place as a migratory bird route over western parts of Europe, including parts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent. \u2018The Flow Country\u2019 is a vast expanse of blanket bog (a rare type of peatland) in the north of Scotland. Apparently it is more fun than it sounds. According to the Flow Country website, you can become a volunteer, staying \u2018for a few weeks or a few months \u2013 some folk end up staying for years\u2019.<\/p>\n

Finally, the \u2018Little Cayman Marine Parks and Protected Areas\u2019, situated in the UK Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands, have been put forward, not for their contribution to dodgy banking, but for \u2018their exceptional importance to marine biodiversity and their incredible natural beauty\u2019.<\/p>\n

The ancient world, keeping it simple, celebrated Seven Wonders. Unesco has more than 1,000 on its list of \u2018sites of outstanding universal value\u2019. The task of selecting even that number from what must surely be potentially tens of thousands of places of such value is inevitably often the cause of furious debate. Unesco defines outstanding universal value as \u2018cultural and\/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Those of us who have not been landed with the almost impossible job of applying that definition can enjoy the fruits of the process that highlights some of the very best of what the world has to offer.<\/p>\n

Themed and feature articles include:<\/p>\n