Endangered historic, culturally significant and nature-rich places around the world have a new voice in a cross-party parliamentary group: The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for UNESCO World Heritage Sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
World Heritage UK writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNESCO \u2013 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation \u2013 was founded following World War Two to promote and protect places of exceptional value. These include the Taj Mahal and the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands. The 35 World Heritage Sites in the UK and British Overseas Territories include Durham Cathedral, Hadrian\u2019s Wall and the Tower of London. UNESCO stripped Liverpool of its World Heritage Status in 2021 following the loss of some of its historic docklands. MPs have voiced fears other UK World Heritage Sites could face a similar fate due to unsympathetic development, climate change and flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonathan Davies MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Mid Derbyshire, was elected the new parliamentary group\u2019s chairman. His constituency includes the Derwent Valley Mills WHS, designated by UNESCO in 2001 for its eighteenth-century role in pioneering the modern factory system, its striking landscapes and buildings dating from the Industrial Revolution\u2019s beginning. Speaking at the group\u2019s inaugural meeting, Mr Davies said: \u2018UNESCO World Heritage Sites articulate the pinnacle of human existence and the best of the natural world. However, some of the UK\u2019s sites face challenges that risk them being delisted by UNESCO. The special reasons these sites were designated of global importance must be safeguarded for future generations. This group campaigns for that.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group\u2019s parliamentarians also elected Conservative MP Danny Kruger, whose constituency includes Stonehenge, as a vice-chairman. Former heritage minister Lord Parkinson has also joined the group. WHUK\u2019s president, Chris Blandford OBE, who attended the meeting, commented as follows: \u2018On behalf of WHUK, I am very pleased that we will be contributing to the development of the APPG by sharing our detailed knowledge of the international and national context together with the challenges of local management at the 35 World Heritage Sites that make up our UK World Heritage Site collection. Our World Heritage Sites are very special, and globally significant places and can be considered \u2018the best of the best\u2019 of our cultural and natural heritage inheritance. However, their potential values and benefits are often unrealized. We believe that our diverse and remarkable World Heritage Sites have the potential to contribute to Government achieving its current missions concerned with balanced growth, tourism, well being, heritage led regeneration, education and renewable energy. The APPG will provide a great opportunity to investigate and reveal how this might be done for the benefit of all. We are glad to be working with the APPG to help them influence improvements to the protection and management of our World Heritage Sites, ensure they are better known and understood and more sustainably funded in the future. And by no means least, ensure that the sites provide tangible benefits , inspiration, learning for their local communities and their future generations.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n